Yesterday we went on a Caravaggio walk to 3 different churches. It was interesting that people had to pay up to 1 euro to light a Caravaggio set-up at times. Otherwise the effects presented in the paintings were...

I've found I can't really describe it without sounding....ridiculously passive and superficial. "It's interesting" just seems adequate to me, so I guess I'm not one of those people who are strongly moved to tears by paintings/frescos. It makes me feel a little out of my depth, especially when all the cohort leaders/teachers/grad students have all these deep, meaningful reactions and all I can come up with is...."Cool." Which I guess is plenty enough, and the adults older more experienced people are expected to be capable of those observations. (There is one grad student who is 19; he went to college at 14, so...yeah. Way smarter than I.) Bah. The Caravaggio paintings rocked, my writing for that day didn't center around Caravaggio, and yesterday ended fine. Huzzah!

Today we went to the National Museum of Rome at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. The contents of the museum made me tilt my head sometimes, and the mummy down in the basement creepified me to getting out ASAP, and there was a cool sculpture of an acrobat in the middle of his act that I was strongly interested in. As well as this little girl framed in something that looked like a window within a window. It reminded me of The Family of Blood episode in Doctor Who though, so taking notes on the girl just led me down the path of writing a 4-line, 4-stanza poem of a haunted house. It's not a very good creepy poem, and I was somewhat glad I didn't get a chance to share today because Rick was in our cohort today and I'm intimidated by the thought of sharing poetry with him, especially when I feel the concept would have been better delivered in a prose format.

Other highlights: buses in Rome are, while cheap (just 1 euro for 1-way), WAY too unregulated. They stuff the bus as full as it will be filled, regardless of traffic hazards. There were people crammed against the doors at the front of the bus and even a little against the front windows; I was pressed into the plexiglas separating the bus driver from the aisle. If you get stuck with 2 really attractive, nice-smelling boys, then it's not so bad. When you get stuck with 2 kinda-okay-looking, terrible-smelling boys, it's not in the least bit good. On the bright side, raspberry and pineapple (two separate flavors in one cup!) gelato is AWESOME!!! Especially when you're randomly craving fruity stuff.

Oh. Forgot Repressed about yesterday: I was eating pizza bianca (just pizza crust with some olive oil; very delicious) in Piazza Farnese on this convenient ledge jutting out from a building, and a pigeon excreted on my head. It was only a little pebble-sized excrement, but....yeah. I've now experienced everything a person needs to experience in life to be a well-rounded person. Bee-stung. Pooped on by a bird. The stereotypical bad college roommate.

Tomorrow we have another bus excursion to someplace well outside of Rome. It's a monastery, with the first (Italian, I believe?) printing press, and an extensive library. I have to wake up at 7AM to get to the bus at 8, but hopefully they'll get us that excellent charter bus again. Especially for a bus ride which will be ~1 1/2 hours.

And I hate the TV here. I wish it were broken. >.<

Edit 11PM: Tru Calling is coming out with a "complete series" DVD set. So that would be....TV series #14-ish that I need to get on DVD, at least 4 of which have 7-10 seasons. Yeeeeaaaahhhh.......


Davis: I’ve got this thing tomorrow at my apartment, and I haven’t unpacked.
Tru: When did you move in?
(Davis looks as through he counting back)
Davis: Three years ago.

Davis: (to Harrison) I'm so sorry. Please, accept my condolences. You were so... young.
Harrison: Dude, I'm still alive. I died yesterday. --Tru Calling

"Spanish food is nothing like Mexican food!"

I meant to. Really. Really seriously. I'd planned to at least go to Castel San Angelo, if I didn't make it to Pompeii or the catacombs.

But I had the apartment to myself, and it just felt nice not to have to fight with the other girls (meaning 3 of them) for rights to the apartment. It felt nice to sit back and not be required to go someplace at such-and-such time, and do this-and-this for the-near-future. It felt nice to have a vacation, in other words, which I would've had if I'd stayed in Olympia.

( The highlight of my vacation )

To end on a more positive note....Rome got a tiny bit cooler over the vacation! And I'm not deadly sunburnt, like some other people I know who went out. I also have this crazy-insane weird longing to watch Van Helsing. I might go see if the Rome Center has it available to check out or something.......


[The Maximals pretend that Dinobot is seriously injured to trick Starscream]
Rattrap: [to Dinobot] Lie still! And GROAN, for cryin' out loud! You're supposed to be half-dead!
Dinobot: If you don't shut up, Vermin, you will be my role model! --Beast Wars

.....to have everything come together.

My dratted Italian visa (and thus my passport) finally came back! So now I can actually get ON the plane come the 17th! And I got my health screening done Tuesday, so I turned in my Concurrent Enrollment form when I went to pick it up, and I've just finished signing up for the Student Health Insurance (*winces*), so.....yeah. I'M DONE WITH THE PAPERWORK!! There are no more hoops for me to jump! At least before I head off to Rome, anyway.

I believe I have all the book-y stuff for Rome now (so long as the directors don't randomly add anything else to the booklist....). I've got Metamorphoses, an Italian-English dictionary, a little tour-book for Rome, Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, and I've also got a moleskine notebook! ^____^ It fits so nice and neatly into my back pocket! This is exactly what I look for when I pick up new notebooks/journals to write in; I think I've got a brand, now. Hee. It's not one of the city moleskines, which is slightly disappointing, but I wanted it more for the number of pages I could write in, so it's all good. Now I just need to come up with a proper name for my little notebook......what? Nobody else does that? (ETA: I've decided it's Leonard. *hugs* But not the proper way of pronouncing Leonard.)

I also had my Korean presentation today (on the 1988 Summer Olympics), which I had 99% memorized before class and (by going over it again and again and again and...etc.) I finished memorizing the last sentence just as the teacher walked in. Of course, as soon as I got up front I completely lost the flow and had to keep looking at my sheet from time to time, but it all came out. I got through the Korean part okay, but when it came to the English translation/question and answer time I was shaking like a leaf--hopefully not too noticeably. I don't know if it was the adrenaline or the nerves, but it took a while for my hand to stop trembling. I also proved my English-major-worthiness by saying "protestations." It's technically a word, but not with the 's' at the end, I don't believe. And my Korean teacher, whose English is her second (if not third or fourth or....some other number) language, caught it. *hides face*

Speaking of really bad English...I was looking through my Korean-English dictionary looking for the number 12 (it should be so simple.....but it's not) and I happened to look at the ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.). They wrote "twelfth" as "twelveth." Ha.

I've seen the first 3 episodes of Chuck, and...yeah. New show to add onto my Need-to-Keep-Tabs-On. Adam Baldwin FTW!!!!! Now if only NBC would put up episodes 4-12 instead of randomly jumping to having episode 13 up, that'd be great (because...I have nothing better to do besides homework...or update fanfiction....or do my reading for Chaucer and Rome.....or study for the Planets final come the 11th.....)


"And the wheel," said the Captain [of the load of bloody useless loonies], "what about this wheel thingy? It sounds a terribly interesting project."
"Ah," said the marketing girl [one of the bloody useless loonies], "well, we're having a little difficulty there."
"Difficulty?" exclaimed Ford. "Difficulty? What do you mean, difficulty? It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!"
The marketing girl soured him with a look. "All right Mr. Wiseguy," she said, "you're so clever, you tell us what color it should be." --Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Restaurant at the End of the Universe, technically)

approximately exactly 3 weeks until I am done with the '07-'08 schoolyear and move out of the room until September. O.o

1 month & 24 days until 2nd season EUReKA comes out on DVD!!!!!! Except, I can't really get it until at the very earliest an additional 3 days, since it overlaps with Rome. And then I'd have to see if I even have the money to buy it. But YAY EUReKA!!!!!!!

Also: 2 months & 7 days until EUReKA begins [the first half of!!] 3rd season! And episode titles for about the first 6 episodes were unveiled!!! Drones, dogs, Mummies (Are you my Mum--err, oops, wrong show), mentions of phase, and apparently somebody named Bob! *flails* There's also this woman named Eva Thorne who's being called ( minor, not really spoilery )

3 weeks & 6 days until I leave for Rome! Non parlo italiano, ma sarà eccellente! And, randomly, "I'm Welsh" is "sono gallese." Heh.

January '09 Dollhouse premieres! *waves Joss Whedon-fan flag* Apparently FOX is doing some weird experimental thing where they're actually reducing commercial time, meaning the "hour-long" Dollhouse episodes will be ~50 minutes as opposed to ~42-44 (which, why in the world do we consider these shows "hour-long" when they're barely 3/4 of an hour??). ALDKHFALHSALKDFH!!!! I'm of two minds about this. For one thing, longer episodes = more excellence. But on the other hand, longer episodes = more expensive to shoot, write for, etc. etc. And with less commercials showing, that drives the cost up more. So, if the idiots people at FOX see the costs of Dollhouse, they might think it's too expensive and (worst case scenario) cancel it. Especially since I don't think American companies are as well-informed about how these things work (except maybe the people for the show 24, who are also FOX, which might make my worries completely unfounded).

Just let Dollhouse work. Please. Or else I might have to boycott FOX's new shows forever and ever because I know they'll just end up breaking my heart. Yes, I'm still bitter about Firefly and Tru Calling. Ironically, Joss created Firefly and Eliza Dushku starred in Tru Calling, and yet both came back to FOX for a show. Maybe they can pool their good luck and it'll come out on top.

FOX has made me sort of excited for the upcoming TV season. There's Dollhouse, and then there are 2 new shows which I'm sort of interested in giving a go. Courtroom K and Lie to Me, the former of which sounds kinda like House in a courtroom, and the latter is a new crime drama. I just finished saying I didn't want to get too attached to any new FOX shows, but I couldn't help it. They just caught my attention.

Speaking of House and the '09 season....I can't believe they moved House to 8PM Wednesdays!!! What is up with that??? Arrgh. And then they seemed to have moved Bones to a different night, and while I don't watch the show I have read the opinion that those 2 (for some reason or another) shouldn't be split up. Those people will have a field day, I know.

Message to FOX: If you just have to cancel a show, cancel some of those stupid comedies and/or that really weird reality show where millionaires pretend to be poor people and accomplish their one act of kindness by giving money away. None of those shows sound very interesting at all.

The administration at UW apparently favor the freshman to a crazy level. I realize the people who organize Dawg Daze and this weird resident-thank-you-BBQ are completely different people, but...seriously? Giving the prizes to only the freshman-centric dorm (plus the upperclass residents who live down south)? Not cool. Is dividing the prizes between North and South dorms too hard? Or even just collecting all the cards and doing the raffling overnight? Or picking a more central-location? Oh well. I didn't see a PS3 anywhere on the little card thing that listed sample prizes, and I'm pretty sure that would've ranked at the top with the Wii and a bike. Soo..not really bothering.

At the BBQ, though, I had sat down with my food when a guy sat in the booth in front of me. He played a sound clip somehow (cell phone? I'm not sure) and, like the geek that I am, I knew what it was. Final Fantasy VII Fanfare!!! *dances in time with the trumpets/whatever the instruments are* ...Yes, sadly, I did deduce which Final Fantasy it was, though I might still be wrong--I haven't heard the music for I-VI. But I'm 95% sure it's VII. Hee.

Nothing much beyond my television rant/countdown. Well...and that Club crackers are terrifyingly (and it's hard to believe "terrifyingly" is an actual word) addicting. And Nobuo Uematsu is a genius.


(Referring to the new sheriff's car)
Jack: I know this isn't environmentally correct, but I really miss my old Jeep.
Allison: Well, next time you won't ignore the "tornado crossing" sign.

Allison: Be careful.
Jack: It's hard to be carefuller. (Receives strange looks) What?! I know it's not a word! --EUReKA, Once in a Lifetime

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

I like sunny weather. It's even the good kind of sunny weather--not too hot sunny weather, but not bone-freezing cold sunny weather like Washington sometimes gets. And we even get some precipitation, so it's not like "OMG, we're heading into a drought!!! FREAKOUT!!!"

Last night at 11:20PM-ish I was sitting at my computer, thinking I might go to bed early 'cause I was feeling a little exhausted, but my iTunes just started a song I liked (Shounen Heart by Home Made Kazoku; JPop/Eureka seveN soundtrack) and I wanted to finish it.

My phone started ringing. I was totally perplexed, because I recognized the ringtone (but I am horrible at mental association, so I didn't recognize it as my mother's ringtone) but my first impression was that solicitors were calling me. Picked up my phone, saw it was Mom, and couldn't comprehend why she was calling me so late. Turned out she intended to call my sister, but hit my speed dial by mistake. *rolls eyes* Good thing I hadn't been in bed by then; I probably wouldn't have appreciated the wake-up call.

I was sitting in my Weather class today and the teacher put a bowl of water on the overhead for a demonstration, and the light from the overhead made a nice stripe of rainbow on the walls of the lecture hall. I think my attention was diverted for a good 2 minutes by all the pretty colors. *has bad, selective ADD*

Took a listening comprehension Korean test yesterday, which I was freaking out about, of course. I sometimes have to ask people speaking in English to repeat and enunciate what they say, how the heck am I supposed to keep track of what someone is saying in a foreign language?? The sheet Kim-sunsengnim handed out made it seem as though it was going to be a test of 25 diction (she speaks, we write down what we hear and translate it), and all of us were completely going insane over the idea of having to do 25 sentences in 40 minutes. Thankfully we only did about 15. It helped even more when she actually read the translation of a few sentences ^.^ I didn't do nearly as badly as I thought I would, though there were a few instances that I couldn't hear her clearly and didn't pick up a few verbs. Blah. It's done, and I didn't fail it, so I'm okay.

Korean's homework, however, is beginning to get a bit frustrating. My teacher is the head of the Korean program, and she doesn't have any faculty to help her, so we all understand that she's got a huge plate to deal with. But...she has this tendency to not be very clear about assignments and when they're due, if they're due at all. She doesn't collect or grade homework, though she assigns it in the hopes that we're motivated enough to learn Korean to do it on our own. Then, for this quarter, we had 2 compositions, a skit, and a project due. We finished 1 composition, so that's good.

The second composition she forgot about, and then decided to...merge it with the skit? Our composition becomes the skit? But then she also said that if we wanted we could do our composition on our own...... And there were 2 students who were saying that the composition could be done in lieu of the skit, which to me doesn't make sense because the skit is sort of an oral presentation, which is different from a writing assignment. But beyond giving us a topic, she hasn't really explained it to us. And now there's a project due (I think next Wednesday), but she hasn't said when the composition/skit/whatever-the-hell-it-has-become is due. *headdesk*headdesk*headdesk*headdesk*headdesk* BAH! Humbuggery.

And I swear I won't do this on a weekly basis, but I AM SO GLAD ANTM GOT RID OF KIM!!!! Well, technically, she got rid of herself, but still. I have no idea why they chose her in the first place. There were a few girls I liked so much better than Kim, and they were shafted so she could just quit before she was even judged. Grr. Plus...could she have fit anymore "like"s in her last hoorah? "Like, I don't believe in, like, high fashion, like, the $2000 clothes? Like, who would, like, buy that stuff, like, it's so, like, expensive?"

*cue eye-twitch and aneurysm* I hope I was never that bad (I am aware I overused the "like" to some extent in high school). If I was, I apologize to those who were inflicted. And hopefully I'm much better now. Being declared an English major has helped me become more self-aware of my speech, I think.

Which, minor random note that no one will care about: the MyUW page (a sort of homepage for UW students) showed I was declared an "English (Creative Writing)" Major about a week ago. Yay!! *does a happy dance*

This "XP Antivirus protection" thing just popped up, and while I'm glad it's wiping out the bad stuff....GRRRAAAAH! I just want to surf the net!! I tried to hit the "cancel" button, but it wouldn't let me cancel. At all. I hit cancel, and it just took me through a loop of "run this program" "if you cancel it won't run" "remove this harmful programs" and then back again. *headdesk*

This had better be a legit program. Because if not....I don't care if I don't know how to be a hacker. I will become a hacker and I will find the source and I will DESTROY IT FOR RUINING THIS ONE DAY OF INTERNET SURFING!!!!!

And now, to remove that malicious software, I have to pay $49.95 for the "license" or whatnot. Seriously? I went through 5 minutes of trying to get the hell out of that circle of "run program" just so it could tell me, "Oh, you have spyware/etc.....but we won't take care of it unless you pay up." *headdesk*

Okay! Getting this entry back to a happier (or less frustrated) note, I register tomorrow. Going for ASTR 150: The Planets, ENGL 321: Chaucer (WooT!); and then finish off 2nd Year Korean (but I won't register for this right away, because I'll be saving a space in another English class for a friend [no worries, Nikki, I didn't forget!]). I was thinking of taking the Architecture 151 class, which is an easy 3 credits (so I hear) but...that'd extend my Tues&Thursdays longer than I'd like. Plus, it'd mean that my Tues&Thursdays would look like: Astronomy lecture: 9:30-10:50, Korean: 12:30-1:30, then Arch: 3:30-4:50. That's 2 two hour breaks in my day, and....I honestly hate those kind of days. I'd much rather get my day done and over with early, even if it means I have no break. It would do nothing for me, except perhaps boost my GPA by some negligible amount, so...I don't think I'll take the class. I'm okay with 15 credit-quarters.

Hansee Hall Ball in about a week! I'm not a dance-person, but it'll be nice to be "social." Plus....chocolate fountain for $3. Um, yeah, sign me up! The only downside would be having to buy dress and shoes, but I figure I should invest in them anyway for later in life. I don't know precisely what "later in life" will entail, but...best be prepared, neh?

Okay! Randomly, livejournal logged me out of my own account, even though I have it set to never log me out. Um....it's a good thing livejournal kept the entire entry so I could copy it before I logged back in, because when I did the entry was about 3/4 missing.

Umm...okay. Is it some sort of hidden message sent to me by livejournal or some other unknown forces...??


(Wash is playing with plastic dinosaurs.)
Wash: (as Stegosaurus) Yes...yes. This is a fertile land, and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it...this land. (as Allosaur) I think we should call it your grave! (as Stegosaurus) Ah! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! (as Allosaur)Ha ha ha! Mine is an evil laugh! Now DIE! --Firefly (sidenote: I went looking through my previous lj-Firefly entries, to make sure I didn't use this quote already...and found out my last Firefly quote was Jan. 28. Heh, talk about unplanned regularity....)

Got to see the total lunar eclipse! Yay-ness. At first Nikki and I were a little afraid that we wouldn't get to see the moon, because there was a little cloud cover, but once we got past the trees we could see the moon. We wound up going to McMahon's patio, where we got a crystal-clear view of the mooooooon, along with several other people. ^____^ Happy times. Also ordered some Wing Zone buffalo wings, which are good and the leftovers are currently sitting nice and cozy in my somewhat empty fridge. I need to go to QFC and get some actual food-food in my fridge; I didn't realize how not-full of food it was until I looked.

Hopefully not very many people see the eclipsed moon and freak out; the world's not ending! Though, at this point if I were on Pern, Thread would be falling from the sky and the dragons would come to flame it out of the sky......that'd be kinda cool.

I tried to take a few pictures, but the clarity was really weak. I might upload some of the pictures that showcase how terrible of a photographer I am. ^.^

America's Next Top Model is on tonight. Woo. It'll give me something to do Wednesday nights, and a little connection to TV until House comes back on.

Watching ANTM right now. More thorough update later.

Edit 9:00: AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! WHAT POSSESSES TYRA TO CHOOSE THE MOST IRRITATING, ANNOYING, CRINGE-WORTHY GIRLS?!?!?!?!?!?!

Okay. ANTM rant over (until next week).

Christopher Eccleston is made of WIN. Even if you don't know him from Doctor Who you should really get on that you should go type in "Christopher Eccleston Top Gear" in the YouTube search box and watch his Top Gear episode. ^.^ And for all those who are wondering, "Who the heck is Christopher Eccleston?" he was on Heroes as Claude (never saw it myself), in 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, Othello (2001), and lots of other stuff. Go watch and laugh and revel in the wonder that is a 14-month driver driving an automatic where usually it's a manual.

And I just realized that I never mentioned this....I got a new digital camera for my birthday!! I did a little "research" on it, meaning I went to various websites and looked at the reviews people left for cameras and decided on the Canon PowerShot A560, because out of the 10 reviews I read, 9 of them were 10 stars and one was 9, and the 9-star one was because of price issues. It's all sleek and small and yes I did name it Kakashi, but I've now decided to name it Jack because I have so many Jacks in my fandom it's not even funny. ^.^ I'm happy with my purchase, especially since WalMart failed me and didn't have it in stock, resulting me in going to Best Buy to purchase it for $10 more. But I'm full of glee about it.

I also got new books with the B&N gift card Nikki gave me on my birthday, including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories, Lord of the Flies, Lirael, and Abhorsen. Got some money, had a breakfast at IHOP courtesy of my sister, and lots of Korean food. ^.^

And now I've discovered that B&N is having a "buy 2 paperbacks get 3rd free" deal. *flails* Couldn't that have been this weekend?? Then.....then.....O.O So many books that could have been bought with $25........*flails some more*

But yes! On to pictures, because I now have time (though I am going to be watching some Torchwood after I finish with this entry....yay Jack!)

Seriously. SO MANY JACKS!!

( Pics )


Col. Jack O'Neill: I'm not a big fan of that "bark like a chicken, cluck like a dog" stuff. --Stargate SG-1, Fire and Water

3 More Days until I'm 21.

The WGA-strike is (almost, I believe?) over! Yay! Lasted 3 months, and apparently cost SoCal's economy almost $2 billion, but I am glad that the writers got what they deserved. There was a mention in the article about how the showrunners lost a lot of money because their typical 22-episode season will be cut to about 12 to 13 episodes, but I think the showrunners are okay with that.

(And, btw Nikki, apparently Moonlight will have some new episodes produced for April/May.)

Now! Bring me back my EUReKA, House, and....and.....huh. Um.....that's it for American telly. Um....wow. I need more television in my life.

Season 4 of Doctor Who is coming to SciFi channel! It'll begin airing in April, along with The Sarah Jane Adventures. Yay!

Roy Scheider died Sunday. He was 75, so he had a long life, but it's still terribly sad. I'm frightened by how many actors I knew as a child are passing on (he's from SeaQuest, though if you're not a scifi buff you'd probably know him from Jaws).

I got the paperwork to change my English Lit major to Creative Writing Emphasis taken care of yesterday, and in addition to that the advisor I saw helped me so freaking much with figuring out the financial stuff for the Rome program. Bridget is the kind of advisor who makes up for all the really terrible experiences I've had with advisors in high school. I kinda hope I can still meet with her, since she's in the English office, and not the Creative Writing office, because she knows her stuff! Thanks for pointing her out to me, Nikki!

I don't actually know how precisely I'm going to afford the program, but....Bridget said she'd email me once the budget for the program is hashed out, and I can go talk to a financial aid advisor about it. I was actually taken aback a bit because she said she'd email me specifically. Like.....she'll actually remember me later. My high school advisor didn't, and my high school was ~950 as opposed to the ~40,000 that attend UW (though, of course, not all 40,000 are English majors.... but you get the idea).


You're gonna need a bigger boat. Roy Scheider, Jaws. RIP.

....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????

Something for me to reference when I'm concerned for my TV shows, and whether or not the WGA strike affects them.

Nice table according to Network

Another one

Doctor Who and Torchwood aren't affected, and though I don't keep up with the latter (I very may well now, though, especially since I should) maybe these strikes will encourage SciFi to reair DW (and maybe even some Classic!Who?...). Hopefully the strike ends before EUReKA is scheduled to begin production, though; it's one of the few shows (now that I honestly think about it, it's probably one of 2, and the other show is DW) I thoroughly enjoy anymore. Maybe I should jump onto the Chuck bandwagon; Adam Baldwin is made of awesome, after all. Oh! And I have Naruto, too, but.....I don't know if that's affected, since it's from Japan and all, but people are needed to dub them..... O.o A strike-induced Hiatus on top of fillers? *sigh*

House and Grey's still have some unaired eps left to go through, but eventually they're going to run out. The plan, apparently, for House is to space them out and have one episode (last or not, I don't know) for the post-Superbowl slot. I feel bad for fans of 24, though; FOX isn't even airing any of the episodes so that viewers won't have a huge gap.

And can I say, I'm really disliking FOX to a ginormous degree? They cancelled Firefly, Tru Calling, and now their execs have the nerve to send this message. One more reason to be disinclined toward the whole American Idol mania.

On a side note: a 4 hour special on Jan. 15 especially for AI???? Seriously???? *headdesk* I apologize to all the fans of AI, but this whole fanaticism is like the Harry Potter craze without the delightful magic. I like the musicians it turns out occasionally (Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry [who didn't win because Americans are MORONS!]), but the hype's too extreme. What happened to the good ol' days of having actual shows to watch on TV?

Back to the strike. I'm not angry with the writers, because I agree with what they're fighting for and wish them luck on it. Hopefully network execs and all those involved with deciding whether to axe a show or not won't pick new writers to take over (because, obviously, they'll ruin the show, since they have no idea how the arcs are supposed to wrap up) or, worse, drop a show entirely because of the fallout. Common sense would lead these execs to realize poor ratings/failure to watch is because the show isn't being aired, right? Then again, I am laboring under the assumption that people in those high positions still have some common sense left after having their brains sucked up by thinking "fiscally."

Yes, I'm doing what I can to procrastinate on my homework, but the rant(s) up above do have merit (in my mind, at least). I have to write for tomorrow:

1. For my Short Story class, 6 6-word sentences which "tell a story" Finished this one (after about an hour.....huzzah for Creative Writing). And apparently, I can only tell morbid stories if I'm restricted to 6 words. Plus, "No harmful winds. Just falling trees." does not even begin to compare to Hemingway's "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." So, screwed? Yes, majorly. (Hmmm, add 2 more words to that, and maybe it'd be a good sentence. Except for that "two more words" part).
2. Critique/peer review 4 stories, for the above class.
3. Write either a pantoum, a villanelle, a sestina or a ghazal for my Intro to Verse class.

I don't know which poetry form I want to write. I almost want to write the sestina one, but that's 39 lines, all of which should be in iambic pentameter ("should be" being the key terms).
Edit 12:15 AM: Can I just say, "Thank the Heavens above for Rhymezone.com!" Otherwise, this poem with its required rhyming scheme would have been THE DEATH OF ME!

I also need to keep in mind that I need to attend a book-reading for my short story class, write 2-3 book reviews on the GoodReads account, and also do a poetry-book review for my Intro to Verse class, all before the end of the quarter rolls around.

Another windstorm came through today, though thankfully it wasn't very stormy. I had been contemplating that trip to B&N (since I didn't go Saturday or Sunday) but I wasn't looking forward to getting wet leaves smacked into my face, so I didn't go. Maybe later this week, but I think I'll wait and see how much money I spend at the University Bookstore Thank You Nite before I go.

Dr. John Becker: Oh great, no cigarettes, the perfect cherry on this crap sundae of a morning.
Jake Malinak: I don't see why you don't just quit, John, they're taking years off your life
Dr. John Becker: Yeah, but those are the crusty old fart years that you spend just bitching at the world.
Jake Malinak: As opposed to this whole Gandhi thing you've got going on now?

Dr. John Becker: The Marathon just gets my hopes up. At first it seems like 20,000 idiots are leaving the city, but then they just make a big loop and come right back. --Becker

First Day whatnot and hoo-ha.

I had a pretty simple class schedule today, and yet by 6 I was pretty darned exhausted. Definitely glad I didn't get an RA position, I'd be dead and not found by this time. After Korean I stopped by Nikki's and we reserved the TV lounge for the Doctor Who season finale Friday (WOO!) before heading out to Padelford so she could get questions answered. We then went to my bank out on 45th, went even further down 45th to some obscure little poetry shop called Open Books: A Poem Emporium, and bought my textbook for 283 and the poetry book for which I have to do a book review on (I won't discuss how out-of-the-way it is, or how Nikki and I totally missed/walked by the store our first time). Apparently Open Books is one of 2 shops selling exclusively poetry. The book review poetry book is by James Tate, whose writing is "quirky," according to the store attendant. Hopefully I will enjoy it.

From there we stepped into Erotic Bakery, just for a fun little look-see, then traveled all the way back down 45th to the Petco store and looked at their fish selection for Nikki. They had such cute ferrets! And one big cat that kinda looked like a pregnant cat. Also traversed the reptile area, where they had lizards, snakes, and a turtle. One of the lizards was busy eating its meal of a cricket.

Went down to the University Bookstore to buy my lab manual for geology, but when I looked there weren't any. I stood in line for 5 minutes, got to the counter, and the person told me they were by the books. Me, being the slightly paranoid/insecure/prone-to-bouts-of-inattentativeness person that I am, took the bait and went and looked. Nope. None there. Rather than braving the (much longer) line just to tell them, No, actually, you don't have them by the textbooks, I put it off for another day and went to get my coursepack for 283. Where I was expecting to need to spend somewhere around $19, I only paid $10. Sweet! In my happiness, Nikki and I decided to eat and after exploring the option of Subway (which didn't take our Husky Account) we went to U-Teriyaki. So now I have some leftovers chilling in the fridge rather than another can of Pepsi. Yay for the food, boo for the lack of space to chill more Pepsis.

We got back, and I sat down in front of my computer for probably 15-20 more minutes before I realized that the Hall Council meeting for Hansee I wanted to go to was starting in a bit. So I went down, and was pretty much bored out of my skull while they had elections. No, I didn't elect myself for any positions, because I like my freetime, thank you very much. There was a BBQ thereafter, to which I went and got a hot dog. And considering the huge line for the hamburgers, I probably could've gotten a 2nd hotdog in the time it took for the people who'd gotten in line at the same time as me for the hamburgers to move a bit closer to the barbeque. Kinda sad.

I might go with Nikki to her friend's place as they watch Heroes and multitask for the work I need to do for tomorrow. Who knows. Maybe I'll just put it off for later tonight. We'll see.

I love my new Doctor Who moodtheme. ^.^ The Doctor is just so very expressive (both Tennant and Eccleston). Having Rose is also a sweet deal. Though, I won't switch my moodtheme anytime soon. I may have the hang of it now, but....good gracious, it was so frustrating getting it to work. I wasted spent nearly 2-3 hours Sunday figuring it out. >.<

Not much update outside the realm of life that is Hansee. Ooh, speaking of which, there's the Haunted Hansee House meeting tomorrow. ^__^ I'll be 30 minutes late to the meeting, but I'll be there gosh-dammit!

And on another sadder note for tomorrow....Eureka's season 2 finale is on tomorrow night. *tear* Another school year before I get to see my beloved inhabitants of Eureka getting into insane amounts of trouble.


To Bad Guys who just said they were nuts: No I'm not, no I'm not, I'm condiments. I've been promoted.

I want you to be my role model, someone I can look up to when the purple wobblies start to wobble.

I had a cat once, but everytime I tried to give him a bath, the fur stuck to my tongue. --Murdock, from The A-Team

My mother's car is evil.

Not End-of-World evil, but devil-child evil. It almost literally has the innocent act down pat.

To be a little more coherent: my mother's 2001 Chevrolet Malibu has developed a rather problematic tick in that the turn signals periodically don't work, for unknown amounts of time. You shift the lever-thing that is supposed to make the green arrow flash and the lights blink outside, but for her car it doesn't do either. And then, just to make things fun, sometimes right in the middle of the trip for no discernible reason, you can shift the lever to signal a turn and pow! it magically works. It had been working pretty reliably for the last few days, but today, when I went out to do my errands for my mother, it wouldn't work for the first leg of the trip. I grumbled, cursed the car, and went on my merry way first to the bank, then to Jiffy Lube because her oil needed changing. The entire way, all the way to me driving up to the building itself, the turn signals don't work. While I was at Jiffy, I noticed that under their oil change thing they also do a variety of other stuff, such as checking the exterior lights.

I figure, ok, maybe somebody'll notice the blinker's not working. Might be a bit of an effort to convince them my mother doesn't want it fixed (she's trading her car in for a new one at some point in the very near future), but I'll get it done. The guy comes in, all smiles and whatnot, says that my car's done, and I can be on my merry way. Not one mention of the car's other defect.

I get in the car, start it up, go to the exit, flip the lever--and the damn thing works again!

Devil-child innocent act! All that was missing was the blonde pigtails and the squishy red lips pursed in a pout. Gah! I'll be happy when my mother gets a newer car, so I don't have to wonder if the car will only cooperate with strangers present. Grrr.

She's thinking about buying a Toyota Matrix. She wants a gray (I think they call it "Phantom Gray"--cue the mocking ghostly whisper) Automatic Matrix, because no one in my family can drive a stick. She was looking at the RAV4s at first, but got turned off by the high price. She likes the Matrix a little better, especially since it has better gas mileage.

I have nothing against Toyota or anything, but....I don't understand how she's suddenly so fixated on having a Toyota. 'Tis kinda weird. She went to look at other Chevrolets, but that was more of a cursory, "Yeah, it's for certain, I don't want another one ever again," kinda look. She hasn't even taken a gander at the other lots, and we were in the auto mall so it's not like it was completely out of our way. She bought a Saturn, and even though she didn't really drive it for very long before it went to my sister, that car drives way better than her Malibu does, and it's older! It hasn't even gone to the shop (that I'm aware of, though of course that's mostly due to drivers, not the car itself) and the biggest issue that's arisen from it was the funky noise coming from the engine that wound up being mostly the fault of the owner not really keeping up with complete maintenance, not the car itself.

Aaaannnnnyyyywaaaaaay......I think my mother's going to gather up the energy to go visit Toyota of Tacoma on Sunday to look at their selection, so that'll probably take up the afternoon of my Sunday. I don't think she'll actually get the car on Sunday; my mother takes her time. A looong time. It took her 5 months to replace the broken TV, and that outcome only occurred because my sister had pooled all her money and was going to buy a new TV, come hell or high water. So, a big thing like a car? Not going to happen anytime soon, I don't believe. But who knows, I might be wrong. We came awfully close last Sunday, when she was at the Toyota of Olympia, and she backed out because of money issues and she "didn't like the dealer." Which happens a lot, too.

In other news: My cold is very nearly gone, with the exception of a sore throat which is making me cough and causing me to lose my voice on occasion. It should be gone (key word: should) by the time I head up to campus. Yayness.

My sister says we're getting up early tomorrow to go round up all the necessities I still haven't acquired yet. I say "says" because she also told me to get up early for the last two Saturdays, and both times it fell through. But who knows, I may wake up at 6 in the morning tomorrow to my sister attempting to sneak into my room to be mean and wake me. If I do a repeat of what happened last night and only manage to seriously head to bed at 3 in the morning, then I will not be a happy camper. (To my sister if she reads this tonight: Do you hear me? NOT A HAPPY CAMPER!)

I really want to bring up my PS2 with me so that I have a form of entertainment, but I'm concerned for 2 reasons. One, I don't want it to distract from my studies--I managed to get distracted last year with PS1 games that I had already finished, so who's to say what will happen with games I haven't finished yet? Or even come near to finishing? The other reason, though it's less of an issue, is that I don't want anything precious stolen, and the PS2 and my accompanying games (particularly my Collector's Edition FFXII and my FFX which has Auron in it) are among my most precious belongings. Still, I need some form of DVD player that isn't my computer, and the PS2 is way more portable than the DVD player we do have. *sigh* But if anything happens to it.....*shakes fist at would-be thieves*


Lorelai: No falling out of windows.
Rory: Not even a first floor one.
Lorelai: And don't drink. And after you're done not drinking, drink tons of water and take two aspirin before you go to bed.

Luke:(on Lorelai’s answering machine) Hey, it’s Luke. I’m sorry to be calling you like this, but I was wondering if when you get this message if you could come pick me up, ’cause I need a ride. I’m in Lichtfield, the corner of Mason and Pine. It’s a big white building, you’ll recognize it by the police sign outside, ’cause oh hell, I’m in jail. Okay there I said it. It’s a long story, I’ll tell you when you get here. Thanks, if you come. Oh, one more thing I need to borrow a little money, 300 bucks, it’s just a loan, oh hell, it’s for my bail. --Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist, Gilmore Girls

I've applied to the English major....probably twenty minutes ago O.O

I only went to the English Undergrad advising office just to set up an appointment for a later date, when I felt a little more prepared to talk to an advisor, but then someone came and waved me on to an advisor, and she went over my transcript and told me I could apply. We're in the 3rd week of the quarter and the English website said they only accepted applications through the 2nd week, but she said I could fill out the application and turn it in tomorrow. But then she pulled out the application and shrugged and said, "Oh, well, why don't you fill it out here and it'll be done in time that you can apply as an English major for the next registration period."

Eeps.

I had some technical questions I wanted to ask in regards to the Creative Writing option and how they wanted their writing samples, but it was just so overwhelming that everything went out of my head. She said I'll know if they accepted me into the major by next week or so. If I'm accepted (Please? Maybe? Let something go my way once??) then I'll save those questions for the English Major orientation.

I won't even have to overload my quarters to get the requirements done for graduation, so she says. Not having to pay extra tuition just so I can keep up with my '09 class? Hell yes. I'll take that. Although, depending on how classes are arranged in Autumn '07, I may wind up taking 2 credits over the credit limit, which means I'd have to pay a few hundred dollars extra ( >.< ickiness de doom) just because I have so many classes I feel I need to take to keep up. I need a Natural World class, which I'm hoping to at least take The Planets, and then I may choose to go on to 2nd Year Korean (we'll see how this last quarter of Korean goes....), and in order to apply for the Creative Writing option, I have 2 prerequisite classes I need to take, and they can be taken concurrently, and I'd rather have the earliest chance to apply to the Creative Writing program. But.....that can wait until I *know* I've been accepted. Kinda not smart to plan all this out and then find out I'm not accepted. If I'm not...then I'm back to being a Comparative Religion major, which isn't going badly, but I think I'd rather be an English Creative Writing major.

....I'm not even going to touch on what I'll do if I'm accepted in the English major, but not the Creative Writing option. Because I don't want to do an English Lit major, but...kinda getting late to change my focus so much.

I want to know what the hell Padelford Hall's architects were on when they came up with the blueprints for Padelford. Because really....three different wings for a somewhat linear buliding, and staircases that are narrow and drafty and doesn't lead to your destination without having to go through other doors, and elevators that don't even function. And to imagine, I might spend the next two years there.....*sigh*

Tried sitting outside the Drumheller fountain to do a Sudoku puzzle, but....all that 70-degree weather that had been around last week wasn't here today. Gusts of wind instead, and no sunlight beaming down. I wasn't outside for very long, needless to say.

Xena: You’re gonna cut your throat and jump? That’s a bit overdoing it don’t you think?

Xena: If I run now, I’ll be running forever.
Gabrielle: Well, it beats being dead. --Xena: Warrior Princess

I should be taking a nap.....but I hate naps. And the caffeine I'm drinking isn't waking me up. So, instead, I'm taking another step in the slow process of posting all my fanfiction up on my LJ. People who read my works on ff.net will recognize this little mini-series. There's nothing new here, sorry to disappoint.



Title: First Steps
Author: me (ffjunkie42 or, on ff.net, sagdragon3002)
Genre: MK, general.
Rating: PG (K+ if you go by ff.net's thing)
Summary: The Defenders of Earth Realm first met Raiden two years ago, when the first official Kombat of their generation began...Or did they? Written in a series of ficlets.
Disclaimer under cut.
Links to other chapters under cut.

( Kitana had been the one Defender he had not taken into consideration twenty-five years ago, but as she had remained in the Outworld-transformed-Edenia for the past several centuries, Raiden forgave himself that mistake. )

Walter: How long've you been married?
Jeff Dunham: Fifteen years.
Walter: You'll see.
Jeff Dunham: See what?
Walter: Remember when you said, "'Til death do us part"?
Jeff Dunham: Yeah.
Walter: Later you'll realize you were actually setting a goal.
-----
Jeff Dunham: Do you have a drinking problem?
Bubba J.: Nah, I have it pretty much figured out.
-----
Jeff Dunham [trying to jog Peanut's memory of which city they're in]: The drive from the valley?
Peanut: Was bad as hell!
Jeff Dunham: Traffic?
Peanut: Sucked like hell!
Jeff Dunham: Drivers?
Peanut: Angry as hell!
Jeff Dunham: And you?
Peanut: Were scared as hell!
Jeff Dunham: Parking?
Peanut: Sucked more like hell!
Jeff Dunham: So?
Peanut: We're in hell! --Jeff Dunham: Arguing with Myself (he's a ventriloquist, each of the others who aren't "Jeff" are his puppets; everyone who needs a good laugh should watch it)

So, instead of doing my homework last night, I began learning a card game called Killer Bunnies. It's muchos muchos fun!!! And, there's a Carrot based on Teal'c! Heeheehee.

To make up for the homework I didn't do last night, I woke up early this morning, took a look at the assignment, and considered myself royally screwed. I figured my classmates would probably have finished the assignment and I'd fail it miserably.

I don't know why I convince myself of these things. I don't mean to belittle my classmates, but...most of them never ever do the assignment. And they didn't this time, either. I spent a lot of the class internally shaking my head and wondering why the hell people were having difficulty with the grammar. Yes, I wound up looking in the BoB for words, but for the majority I knew what I was doing sentence-development-wise. *shrug* oh well.

Vanessa made me a little cake, as well as a book from Chris Baty who started the NaNoWriMo and a Korean phrasebook. Was muy happy.

I get to go home tomorrow, woot! First time in over a month. I've missed my bed. I've missed my toilet that doesn't require a key. >.< And I have lots of hours of Naruto to catch up on, Final Fantasy XII and DoC to play, and a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake awaiting me!!!!!!! Baskin Robbins ALL THE WAY!!!

I'm intending to have a shopping spree on Saturday, after I drop off Melissa's bday present. We'll see what I buy then.

Off to eat my most excelente Lindt Excellence White Coconut chocolate bar..... *MUNCH!!* Yuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmminess.......

"I will love him and pet him and call him George." --Looney Tunes (You MUST have the proper accent saying "George" to get the full effect)

So, yeah....those nervous pains I felt Saturday due to my RA interview? While I've no doubt that some of that pain was because of my nervousness, it later developed into the more serious thing of the frickin' flu/cold.

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh. I was real happy about that one, too.

I'm feeling human now, at least. And yesterday's classes went okay, though I wanted to stab myself in the eye with my pencil in Econ and the movie we watched in the film class was in French with English subtitles so I wasn't as into the movie as I usually am, but I survived.

Generally speaking, I get up and check my email at about 9:20 or so, to see if any of my teachers cancelled classes, etc. etc. I did that, didn't see any emails from my teachers, and went off to Korean thinking that it would be normal.

Got to the class about 9:45 (for a 10:30 class, no less; I'm such a nerd), read the grammar notes I was supposed to read before class, read the Daily, and looked up and it was a little after 10. And there was only one other person in my class nearby, whereas there's usually 3-5.

I kinda thought WTF? And then someone else came, and said,

"Did you get the emails? Jessica-sunsengnim got a flat tire and can't make it to class."

Whhaaaattt? I took all those damn stairs for no reason?

"And the next one, saying that Soohee Kim-sunsengnim is going to take over so we should all come to class?"

Fuck.

Soohee Kim is the head of the Korean language department, or some equivalent thereof. Which meant she was going to be speaking Korean pretty much the entire time. Which meant I, with my effed-up sinuses and unrecovered brain cells, was screwed.

I was right, well enough, about her not speaking English throughout the class. There was ten words at the most that she spoke in English, but those were words we didn't know the Korean-equivalent of. And with only 7-8 people in the class, there was most definitely individualized attention.

And I did do some stupid things. Such as trying to "sell bread" when I meant to "buy bread." Yeahh.....I felt about as intelligent as a rock right there.

It wasn't terrible, though. I came up with a sentence off the top of my head (not the most original, but with only 5 seconds to think about it, I think I did fine enough), so I felt kinda okay about it. And then Kim-sunsengnim decided to move one of the classmates to the heritage class, so now no one in my class has an advantage when it comes to the vocabulary games Jessica-ssn plays before tests. Woot.

*Does a dance* Eight days until my birthday, huzzah! Eight days until I have a year to look forward to my 21st, which is really the last exciting birthday to look forward to, and I don't even drink or what have you. Oh well. My friends can drink my shots for me.

I wish I could feel better sooner so I could eat an actual meal....or at least drink my Pepsi without mucus running down my throat....pretty picture, ain't it?

Piper [about Leo after he hangs up on her]: Okay, vanquish demon first, kill husband later.

Piper [pregnant with a pacifist baby]: Kiss this bitch! (Piper tries to blow up The Siren, but instead showers her with flowers.) Ohhh bad baby!

Leo (after their powers/pregnancy switches back): Hey i'm not nauseous anymore.
Piper: Hey, I am! Wait, that's not good news! --Charmed, S.5 episode

Edit 11/5/07: Placing the quotes at the top, because for some reason my lj-cut was including them under the cut and I don't know how to fix it.

[Tech enters his lab, dragging Rev as he hangs onto his leg]
Rev: Don't make me beg!
Tech: You're already begging.
Rev: Then please make me stop!

[Tech and Rev are working on a toy robot, which is malfunctioning and suddenly zooms into Tech, throwing him over the edge a la the Road Runner cartoons for the third time in the episode; Rev catches the robot, but fails to save Tech]
Tech [wearing rocket boots and a tired expression]: I came prepared. --Loonatics Unleashed

Wow, I'm updating a lot this week. For those annoyed by me constantly popping up in their Friends' entries....sorry. I'll see if I can't do something else...Final Fantasy IX needs to be played....as well as VII....and there's a new episode of Naruto today....

Oops. Forgot about my homework. I should probably do that, huh?

( Memes, my anti-drug (AKA Homework) )

This week (starting Friday, ending Thursday) was chock-full of movies. Let's see, where to begin....

Thursday before last was Nightmare Before Christmas, as I already said. And then this last Wednesday Vanessa and I went and saw The Descent and Snakes on a Plane for $3. Two movies for $3 dollars? Heck yes--we need to do that more often. We went more for SOAP than TD; for TD we were just kinda "eh, probably not a good movie." So, we went, got lots of free posters, and they showed TD first.

The Descent.....was a damn freaky scary movie. I didn't think it was going to be that frightening. Vanessa didn't think it'd be that frightening. But damn, IT WAS! Aside from the monsters, it was very similar to The Grudge. We both left the theater with hearts racing and a bit jumpy, and Vanessa is the type of person who can sit through the Saw trilogy, Hostel, and all those other types of movies without really batting an eye.

Snakes on a Plane was incredibly fun, and at one point someone who worked for the theater got out of his seat with a stuffed snake and ran around the auditorium screaming, "Ahh, snakes! Snakes in the theater/plane! Ahhh!" Everyone laughed. Plus we were clapping at the ridiculously corny parts, and EVERYONE quoted Jackson when he said, "That's it! I've had it with these motherf***ing snakes on this mother