Nature of the Beast

So apparently this blog has become the blog-every-school-night blog instead of the blog-every-day blog. Which, isn't the worst thing in the world. Maybe it's not what I planned, but it works. And hey! I was busy this weekend. With being out until 3AM on Friday night, my family coming up and visiting on Saturday for lunch, and kinnecting like a beast on Saturday night with Chris, Emily, and Nic (although more with Chris than Nic and Emily because they were working on homework) my weekend has been pretty full. Which is frightening for my homework situation as I have a lot of it.

Which means that this post is going to be short and another one of those "OMG my LIFE IS ALL HOMEWORK" posts, but that's the nature of my life at the moment.

I did have an interesting conversation with this girl I work with about what a nerd is supposed to look like (she's into a lot of nerdy stuff too). Like, I'll tell someone I'm really really into video games (like Halo/Mass Effect/etc) and they'll be really surprised. Like I don't look like the kind of person that would be into something like that. Plus, there's that thing with me being a girl? But then, there's people I talk to and interact with frequently enough and I'm incredibly surprised when they reveal they're into some nerdy thing. So obviously it works both ways, but I think it's interesting.

WTWA: This is actually from yesterday, but I'm deciding it counts. Did you know there's a game in Kinnect Adventures where you fly in a zero gravity environment to pop bubbles by flapping your arms? I'm not sure why, but that is why today (yesterday) was awesome. Because kinnect games are ridiculous and amazing.

Muscles

I've recently mentioned the fact I've been taking a pilates class this quarter at my college Rec Center. I'm not super new to pilates as I've done videos and read some things online about it, but this is my first time taking a class. What's nice about the class is that the instructor breaks down the exercises a lot more and can tell you if you're doing something wrong. And, let me tell you, in this setting you end up working a lot more different muscles a lot more. We've done exercises using muscles I didn't realize I actually had, and using muscles in ways I haven't thought of before. It's interesting, and also makes those muscles sore since I'm not exactly used to using them.

This made me wonder about things that I use and have access to on a daily basis but I don't really notice. I don't just mean things like clean water running freely from a sink or the easiness of acquiring food, although those are definitely things that fall under this. Strangely enough, I feel like I take for granted and fail to notice things like facebook, youtube, my smartphone, xbox, laptop, etc way more than I take for granted things like food and clean water. I forget that not everyone is connected into the internet nearly 24 hours a day, and that a large proportion of people don't have computers or have never played a video game. But for me, these things are huge parts of my daily life. I go crazy when the internet is down (although thankfully I can say that after my initial freak out and my reflex fix of unplugging and plugging the router I do remember I have things like homework to do, books to read, and things to crochet). I check my e-mail on my blackberry constantly. I always have a google chrome tab open to facebook and youtube.

Even more significant than these things are the people I fail to notice and really appreciate. It's sort of like when you pull a back muscle or you do some weird exercise that makes a muscle in your back sore, and then you really realize how much you actually use those muscles because it hurts whenever you try to move. When these people aren't available I realize how much I depend on them in various ways. Like my mom (Hi mom! I know you read this), my Dad, my brother, several of my friends (both old from high school and new from college)...

I know, I turned a post about pilates into a touch-y feel-y blog about not taking people for granted.

But it's true.

WTWA: At this moment in time I'm technically "done" with everything I absolutely have to have done by tomorrow. Sure, I have assignments I should get done tonight and reading I should work on, but if I stopped right now I would be completely fine. I haven't finished my homework before midnight on a school night in AGES. So now I'm going to bug my roommate until she's done with enough of her homework so we can watch Buffy.

Hiding in Homework

I realize I'm two posts behind, but there's only really so much to blog about when your life is wake up, go to class, come home, do homework, and then maybe sleep again. So, since I still have 40 pages of Gravity's Rainbow to read, kanji to study, and other articles to read, I'm just going to leave you with a WTA and then I'll run away again.

WTA: Large bowls of orange sherbet. Lord of the Rings. Folk Tales. New Music. Pilates.

Going Crazy

Book List

The list of books I currently have sitting next to me I need to read today(Books with a * are picture books):

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

*Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

*Snow by Uri Shulevitz

*The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster Illustrated by Chris Raschka

*Flotsam by David Wiesner

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (only part of it needs to be read today or tomorrow)

Books I've finished reading but need to write about:

Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

Books need to get a hold of as soon as possible so I can get started on reading them too:

*The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís

*My Japan by Etsuko Watanabe

Shipwrecked! : the true adventures of a Japanese boy by Rhoda Blumberg

An American plague : the true and terrifying story of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy

Various poem books

Various children's biography and non-fiction books

Books for research projects

aaaaaand probably more than that.

Why did I decide to be an English major?

WTWA: Currently it's only about noon, but it is pretty awesome to get to read children's books and call it homework regardless of how much reading it is.

You're feeling strange...

I do realize that it's morning of the 22nd which means I didn't actually post anything on the 21st, but I have decided that this post will do for yesterday's post and then I'll post something again tonight. In theory. Most likely.

Anyway, yesterday was nice because it was the kind of productivity that was definitely useful but it wasn't really productive in a school way. I did go to school early yesterday so I could do some studying in the library before my one class yesterday, but when I came home I worked out, vacuumed, did tons of dishes, cleaned other areas, etc. Which, honestly, all needed to be done so it was productive in that way, but it didn't really make any dent in the mountain of homework that needs to be completed this weekend/the coming week. I still need to finish reading Inkheart, locate and read about five other books (although most of those five are picture books), read a good chunk of Gravity's Rainbow and write a blog on it, study for Japanese because we have a quiz/test thing on Monday, in addition to the studying and researching I've been attempting to do all quarter for all of my classes. And that's just for this weekend. Needless to say I will not be attempting to get through an entire season of Buffy like I did last weekend no matter how much I'd rather watch Buffy and crochet a new hat.

And I haven't even touched Dragon Age in over two weeks. Which is annoying because I wanted to finish this play through so I can have the exact ending I want in order to import it into Dragon Age 2. All very important stuff you know.

But last night wasn't for homework. Last night I went to a friend's apartment (same friends as last Saturday) to meet up with this D&D group that we're starting. Which, by the way, is SUPER exciting for me because it was my nerd-related goal for last quarter to learn how to play. We didn't actually play yesterday. Mostly we made characters and then we played this zombie apocalypse game where I totally OWNED the first game while playing the high school quarterback because I killed tons of zombies as I was becoming a zombie myself. The game is supposed to be hard for humans (one person plays the zombie while everyone else plays as humans) but somehow the humans managed to win both games we played. It got pretty close though.

And now I need to go do other homework and figure out how I'm getting to a book store. Which, in theory, should be all that hard except that the bus schedule sucks on the weekends and it's kind of hard to get anywhere.

I Dreamed a Dream

I've gotten a few steps closer to my study abroad application today. My advisor finished the recommendation form (that I dropped off yesterday, crazy productive man) and I ordered my official transcript. With each step it becomes a little bit more real, and a little bit scarier. I'm somewhat adventurous, but admittedly taking off for a foreign country where I somewhat know the language for two months and I'll be more or less on my own is stretching my sense of adventure. Okay, I realize I'm not actually in the program yet, it's only for two months, and I'll have ages to prepare, but still! Really! It's not exactly something I've ever done before. It's exciting and sounds amazing, but still somewhat frighting.

Speaking of things that are somewhat frightening, my dream last night was one of those incredibly vivid ones that are intense to the point of being tiring. But it was also nice because there were a few aspects that I wish would happen (and are physically possible of happening) in real life so I was a little sad to wake up. Then again I was also Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (but I was still me and living my life) which was the stressful and intense part. Really, I'd never want to actually be her. Have her crazy awesome slayer powers? Maybe. Deal with the demons and the undead and the apocalypse every single year? I'll pass. This might be an indicator that I've been watching too much Buffy, but I haven't watched a single episode since last Monday, I swear! Despite the fact that both the people I told this dream to today had the same almost instant reaction that I've been watching the show too much, I'm sticking with my assertion that I don't have a problem...

Back on the topic of dreams, I think dreams like this are interesting because, despite the fantastic dream-like qualities to them, they feel more like real life than other dreams. Dreams like this blur the lines between reality and dream. What is the dream and what isn't? Did that conversation you distinctly remember having with you mom last week happen in real life? Or in the dream? There are some parts in Gravity's Rainbow that slip into and back out of a dream again, and if you're not careful you can completely miss the shift. If you've seen Inception there's that part where Leonardo DiCaprio's character is explaining to Ellen Page's character that dreams feel real when we're in them, and it isn't until we wake up that we realize something wasn't quite right.

Anyway, I just hope tonight's dreams are a little less intense so I don't feel so tired when I wake up. Being the Slayer is tough- even when it was only a dream.

Oh Snap!

I feel like there's some law in the universe that prevents me from reading Gravity's Rainbow before 9:00 at night. I got home around 5 PM, which honestly should have given me plenty of time to start the reading I have to have done by tomorrow. Yet, like the past two times, I found excellent ways to waste four hours of my life before finally starting on it. I realize that doing something three times in a row doesn't necessarily mean it's a law, but I definitely think it's at least a pattern.

But I was tired! I slept horribly last night AND I went to a pilates class today. So I ended up watching youtube videos for an hour, then I took an hour long nap, then I attempted to get Pokemon Snap to work on an emulator for another hour, then the fourth hour was taken up by people getting home and me trying very hard to (not) start my homework.

And you know the worst part? I didn't get Pokemon Snap to work. Fail.

Seriously though, I have so many good childhood memories about that game. I just thought it was the most BRILLIANT IDEA EVER for you to get points for taking pictures of pokemon. Then it had that awesome level at the end where (spoilers! haha, no not really) you take ten million pictures of Mew for the boss level. Except you can't get to the boss level at all on emulators, and you have to do a lot of special modifications to get other parts of the game to work. So, my current plan is to see if my old N64 works next time I go home. That or, you know, play games that came out in the recent decade.

WTWA: While Pokemon Snap didn't work, I did play a Japanese version of Green on an emulator for a while. Due to the fact there's like no kanji (since the reading level is aimed at kids) it was pretty easy to understand. Especially since I've started about a million Pokemon games and the intro is more or less the same in all of them. Still, Japanese comprehension for the win!

Social Media

So I'm posting a youtube video on a blogger blog talking about Facebook/social media. I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but it sure seems interesting.

Click here for the Amazon page where you can get The Young and the Digital. I mean, you don't have to, but I said in the video I'd link to it.

EDIT: WTWA: So I forgot to say why today (although yesterday now) was awesome. I think it was awesome because it felt like a Monday but it was actually a Tuesday due to the fact there was no school Monday.

None Whatsoever

I definitely should have done more homework over this three-day weekend. I mean, I'm not necessarily doomed this week but I'm not exactly in the best spot either. From the looks of my Google calendar, this week doesn't look too bad. The problem is that next week I'll be completely dead if I don't get a certain amount ahead. Thank goodness for four day weeks after three day weekends that followed the week of drowning in homework.

The reason for my having next to no homework done right now at 7:38 Monday night after a three-day weekend? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hands down. Yes, I hung out with friends and did things, but honestly. I watched most of season five, and I watched seven episodes of season six today. I would have watched less of season six, but I really really wanted to get to the "Once More with Feeling" musical episode. Which, by the way, is a product of television GENIUS. No lie. Well, that episode was really only part of my need to keep watching episodes. The other large part of inability to focus on productive things today was my Spike/Buffy shipping that's been happening since Spike crashed into Sunnydale. Things keep happening with those two, and I want to keep watching to see more! I mean, I'm ridiculously close to slapping Buffy and hugging Spike with everything that keeps happening. Well, figuratively obviously. If I did either of those things literally I'd probably die because they'd kill me. Or, in actuality, I'd probably be crazy since they're both fictional characters.

Anyway, on that note of crazy I really do need to go read about 90 pages of Gravity's Rainbow and probably a few other things before I go to sleep. AND because I have no self control I'm going to watch the return of Chuck that will be happening in about 15 minutes.

I really have no self control.

None whatsoever.

Context

I'm currently in the last five episodes of season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while baking banana bread and banana cake AND doing tiny bits of homework (albeit very tiny). I mean, I won't be able to focus on homework until I finish this season, so why bother? Right?

Seriously, though, this season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been amazing. It's also interesting because there's an episode near the middle that has this lovely way of ripping your heart out but it's still beautiful (if you've seen it you know which one I'm referring to) that I had actually seen before. My friend Jessica has always been a little aghast at the fact that this episode was the only episode of Buffy I'd seen the entire way through for the longest time. I had seen parts of the one where Xander is possessed by a hyena and parts of the last episode of the fifth season, but "The Body" was the only one I'd seen it its entirety. It was odd watching it today, finally in context of the five years of history the show had gone through previous to the episode. It was interesting to remember the first time I watched it, not understanding various relationships and histories and characters, and then comparing it to watching it now.

It's kind of like when you take anything out of context. Sure, you can understand most of it, but there's so much more beneath that you just can't see. Which makes me think about people. People, it seems, are always out of context. Or more importantly, we can only seem to understand someone in context. Or maybe it's the context we often understand more than the person themselves.

Or maybe I've been watching to much TV and eating/drinking too much stuff with sugar in it and it's going to my brain.

I Honestly Can't Come Up With a Title so I'm Just Going to Title it This

To anyone who actually read yesterday's post, I applaud you. It was really just a long and concluded way to say I liked but was disappointed in a movie (and the media in general). To anyone who didn't read it, you can just read the previous sentence to get the gist of it.

And to anyone who thinks that this post doesn't count because I missed a day because it's after midnight, I've decided it counts because I haven't gone to bed yet. It might be 3:30 in the morning, but this is why weekends are awesome. You can stay up until 3:30 in the morning and it really doesn't matter. This is especially true for 3-day weekends when it doesn't matter so much when you mess up your sleep schedules because you have an extra day to catch up. Although it probably will mess with my ability to do homework tomorrow, which is unfortunate because I really really need to do homework tomorrow. Mostly because I haven't done any yet this weekend. I did do my laundry though, so I think that should count for something.

As for other things I did today I made breakfast for a friend and myself (pancakes! Gluten free too), watched a decent amount of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I'm somewhere in the middle of Season 5, a season that is ripping my heart out), crocheted a little (because I'm still working on Christmas presents), and spent about 6-8(?) hours playing this CRAZY board game called Arkham Horror with a few friends (well, technically a friend and his roommate, but friend's roommate can be upped to friend status. I mean, we're friends on facebook, so that must mean we're friends). It was pretty amazing, but it had about a million rules that we definitely did not follow. We followed *most* of them, yes, but we definitely kept discovering rules we'd been breaking the entire game. Some of the rules we kept breaking weren't the biggest deal, but at the very end of the game we discovered a few pretty big rules that were potential game changers that we didn't follow.

Oops.

Still, it was fun. If you like crazy board games where the players work as a team to get to a goal, you should try it!

WTWA: Pretty much for the things I did today. It was a really nice day that I spent with some friends doing fun things.

Side Note: I apologize for the typos that are sure to be in this. It's 3:30 in the morning, and I need to sleep.

Easy A is Easily... Not

I just finished watching Easy A, a movie I was actually quite intrigued to see (despite and because of its previews). I'd heard some things about it, mostly good, so I continued to be interested. However, after I watched it I'm feeling a strange mix of love and hate for the movie, but mostly disappointment.

I'll start with the things I liked. I LOVED Emma Stone. Honestly, I feel like her performance was probably the best part of the movie. She was enjoyable to watch, which honestly was a good thing because if she wasn't the movie would have probably been horrible. Her family was also an upside to the movie (oh hey! A good family for once with parents who actually function as human beings who might actually care for their child?! What is this madness?!).

Now, before I move on to what I didn't like I'm just going to put this on the table because I KNOW that a major reason why I didn't like the movie is going to be this: I am a Christian. I grew up going to church, I believe in God and in heaven, I'm a (trying really hard to) love everybody type person, and I honestly believe that God is a huge part and a huge truth in my life. I try really hard not to push that on people (in huge part, I feel, due to my Lutheran upbringings. Lutherans aren't really big on in-your-face-proselytizing) although I do hope that people realize they can come to me with any question they might have and would receive no judgement on my part towards them.

And now I'm going to admit it, I was pretty offended by the movie.

I tried so hard not to be offended, you guys. I really really really did. I knew going into the movie that Amanda Bynes played the over-stereotyped, bitchy, blond, over-zealous, judging, Christian and that I doubted anything else in the movie would soften that. Although I did appreciate Olive going and attempting to read the Bible, going to different churches, mentioning the fact that Marianne (and her friends) were extremists, and a few other tiny mentions that not all Christians are crazy, but these mentions were a little far and few between. I also had SERIOUS problems with the depiction of Marianne's dad (the pastor) especially at the end due to some of my own past experiences that I don't really feel like going into on the internet at this moment in time.

And before anyone reading this feels the need to point out the injustices done by Christians in both large and small scales, and that Christians have marginalized people for centuries, and whatever... Just don't because I know this already. I just don't understand the constant need in the media to point out how horrible Christians are. People wouldn't feel a need to harp on someone of a racial minority if they were offended due to their ethnicity being negatively stereotyped. People are horrified by old Disney cartoons and children's books that depict gross representations of different groups of people. So why do I feel guilty? Why do I currently feel that I shouldn't be such an easily offended Christian? Why do I feel like I'm not allowed to be offended by this movie?

I'm annoyed that a movie that seems to promote imaging people complexly, that we shouldn't believe everything we see and hear, and there's so much more to people than we realize has every character except the main one be predictable, flat, and stereotyped (except *perhaps* her parents and the teacher she liked). I disliked that I felt that I wasn't allowed to identify with the movie because part of my identity was tied to the villains in the movie. And, honestly, I so identified with Olive, but I felt it ripped away as I felt judged by everything else in the movie. Why am I not allowed to share in these things?

And why can't there be movies that portray normal Christians? Why can't there be TV shows about perfectly normal kids who are Christian? Maybe in my highly offended state right now I can't quite remember them, but beyond the Christian movies I've seen (produced by Christian companies that are often cheesy and campy) I can't think of movies/tv shows/or too many average books with a main character or a friend of the main character who was religious AND normal.

Anyway, the movie wasn't the worst thing I'd ever seen in my. It has a good message that gets distorted by hypocritical views (that are brought to light, I suppose, if you are an easily offended Christian) so if you haven't seen it and you're still interested it could be worth a rental. I, unfortunately, will be a little disappointed (but still loving Emma Stone/Olive and her capacity to still try and love and understand and forgive people in the movie).

WTWA: In my Children's Literature class we got those scholastic book orders you used to get in Elementary school, and we get to order books from them! WIN!

THREE MINUTE BLOG

EGADS! I currently have THREE MINUTES to post a blog before I have missed the deadline for a post today.

Things that happened today:

Going back and forth between campus because I kept forgetting things.

Signed up for a pilates class with my roommate.

Being coerced by that same roommate to go to school 2 and a half hours early tomorrow morning because she is manipulative and adorable.

And I spent about an hour reading Pokemon related articles because I'm super excited for Pokemon Black/White (I think I'm getting white). Nerd? Yes. Were you aware of this already? I hope so.

Show Stoppin'

For today's post, I honestly had no idea what to write so I asked my ever so helpful roommate Emily who said I should post about "Show Stoppin.'" I kid you not. I think part of this came from the fact that the idea for us to dress up as those orange construction cones and this would be a show stopper. And now I have nothing else to say about show stopping. Except for the fact that I find the positive connotations of show stoppers odd, especially because technically technical difficulties will stop a show but they're definitely not positive.

I apologize for the lack luster quality of this post, but I really have no focus and have little brainpower to spend on anything. I still have 60 pages of Gravity's Rainbow to read, and I really don't know if I'll be able to finish all of those pages before tomorrow. On the plus side, the first 25 pages of my reading has been populated with more bananas than I've ever experienced in literature and a dream about a giant adenoid swallowing up London. I think that's what happened anyway. I'm not entirely sure what is going on in this book.

WTWA: Today was a "go to class in the sweatpants you slept in" kind of day. This might sound bad, but getting to the point where you really just don't care anymore has its benefits. And the benefit is not caring that you're still wearing the clothes you slept in. YES.

Snowcone?

"At the best of times his face was unreadable. Now his face was a book written in a language long forgotten, in an alphabet unimagined. Silas wrapped the shadows around him liked a blanket, and stared after the way the boy had gone, and did not move to follow."

This quote is from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman which I just finished reading for my children's literature class, and I'm not sure why, but I was honestly amazed by this book. I mean really, read the above quote again and tell me that's not amazing. When read in context it'll send shivers down your spine I swear.

Besides going to class, going to work, finishing up The Graveyard Book, and doing other homework energy has been a little crazy around here with the current crazy snowfall. The snow has already piled up considerably, and it's still going strong. My roommates are hopeful that it'll keep snowing and we'll get school canceled tomorrow, but in all liklihood it'll either A) Start raining in the early morning and the snow will be mostly slush by the time we get up or B) There will still be LOTS of snow but the school will tell us that we should "use our own judgement" which will mean I'll need to get to school. I mean honestly. I have classes where if you miss more than three times you fail, or you lose 2% every time you miss. I know that in reality if I seriously couldn't get to school it would be fine, but meh. I just want classes cancelled.

Anyway, regardless of whether school is canceled tomorrow or not, I'm currently eating a snowcone made from actual snow. Which, by the way, is why today is awesome.

W3CG Video about Books!

Here's my WeThreeChallengirls video for the weeks in which I talk about the craziness of my life and books. Mostly books.

The links to the sites with the award winners are this link for the Printz award and this link for the other ones like the Newbery award. I'd really like to read Ship Breaker and Moon Over Manifest personally. Anyone else see an award winner that strikes your fancy? Or did you read a children's or young adult book in the past year that you think would have deserved any of these awards much more?

When it's New

Despite the trepidation and fear people have towards change, I feel like most people experience some form of excitement about new things. And when I mean things, I mean both physical objects and doing new things. Learning a new skill is often exciting and practicing that new skill is often way more fun when it's brand new. Going to new places is fun and exciting. Forming new friendships. Learning new things. New. New. New.

I always get a little excited when I get new classes at the beginning of the year/quarter. Getting new books and starting off with a clean slate is always a fun experience. This quarter the things I was least excited about were the things I'd already been doing the whole year. I had a "ho-hum" sort of attitude about most of these things.

Some old things can turn into new things too. People you've known for ages can surprise you with random facts or stories from their pasts. Skills you've been honing for a while can become more exciting when you discover a new technique. While change can be frightening, it can lead to this sense of excitement and "new-ness".

Mostly, these were just thoughts that were on my mind today as I thought about a few things. Also on my mind today was HOW MUCH ICE was everywhere. Seriously. I love snow, but really? And now I need to go finish my homework because my university NEVER cancels school regardless of how dangerous things get. Well, maybe not that far, but I imagine it will take a lot to get them to cancel school. Teachers might cancel an individual class, but school itself will never get canceled.

WTWA: I know I complained about the ice but this is why today was awesome...

Also, I made a hat :)

I look weird in this picture, so ignore the face and just look at the hat.

Missing Something

I used to do this thing in my blogs where I'd list what I was reading. Currently, I'm reading the following books in the next week:

• Reading Matters
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (starting)
• Gravity's Rainbow Companion
• Children's Literature Briefly

And other things I'm sure I've forgotten. It's interesting, because I used to read constantly. It was what I did when I couldn't sleep at night. As a child, I had even more of a need to be perfect in every way possible, and was neurotic to the point of insomnia. This was especially true during "high stress" times like the first day of school (although, really, how high stressed can a seven-year-old get?). I would read books late into the night, reading until I couldn't stay up anymore and I'd forget why I was so worried.

But now I play video games and I crochet hats because reading has become what's stressful in my life. Sure, I still love reading Harry Potter into the late hours of the night, read comic books when my dad brings them home from New Comic Book Day, and pick up random books for fun, but it makes me guilty.

Mostly, I feel kind of odd tonight, internet. Mostly I feel like I lost something but I don't know what it is. Like I left behind something really important somewhere in my crazy day, but I haven't discovered what I left behind. Although don't be fooled into thinking I had some horrible depressing day. I actually had a really nice day with people I really like spending time with (despite having to start my day at 6:30 AM in order to take a 5-hour test). It's just I wonder if I missed something.

WTWA: Ridiculous amounts of peanut butter desserts. Peanut butter pie shared with a friend, and peanut butter cookies made to share with more friends.

Why Today is Awesome

So Kayley Hyde of fiveawesomegirls (owlssayhoot is her personal challenge) posted a video today showing her "Why Today is Awesome" journal. For those of you who don't know what fiveawesomegirls (FAG) is, or what that has to do with FAG, it was a channel on youtube where five girls for three years posted (mostly) daily videos talking about their lives, doing challenges, and saying why their day was awesome. Sadly, they decided that they wouldn't carry on with daily videos anymore, basically ending the project, many people have decided to start daily journals to say why their day was awesome (including Kayley). I thought this might be a fun addition to my daily blog to state why my day was awesome. Sometimes I think I forget in the midst of all the craziness and stress and constant busy-ness the little things that do make my day awesome. Like yesterday when I showed up to the class my roommate and I are taking together she handed me a nonfat vanilla latte, explaining that she knew I'd had a rough night the day before and that today was going to be difficult so she bought me coffee to hopefully make it easier/better. So, you know, things like that make my day awesome.

If you want to view the video that I mention, you can view it HERE. As for now, I'm going to sleep because I have to getu p at 6:30AM on a Saturday in order to take a test (in order to be a teacher) that's more of an insult to my intelligence than an actual test.

Why Today Was Awesome (WTWA): My friend Chris came over so we could study for this test we're taking tomorrow (him, my roommate Emily, and I are all taking it) but mostly we ended up eating pizza, making fun of the test, and playing Halo: Reach so I could show him how the grunts explode with confetti and children cheer when you kill them with head shots. He was MUCH more appreciative of this than my roommates were. Which, honestly, is the correct way to react to enemies exploding into bursts of confetti when you kill them.

Lost and Found

Lately I've discovered I've been leaving behind a lot of things. And when I say that I mean like I left my rain jacket at my parents' house when I moved back to college a week ago (and when you live in Western Washington, losing your rain jacket in January really isn't a good idea), or yesterday I left my TARDIS emblazoned pencil case that holds all of my school supplies (and normally my zune, but thankfully that was at home) behind in the library. I may also be losing my mind in the process, but that's incredibly likely due to the circumstances outlined in yesterday's "post" (or whatever you want to call the blurb I made yesterday)

This made me think of other things I've left behind. Decisions I've made to let some friendships weaken in some way or another for some reason or another, or other decisions to forgo certain life paths in exchange for something different. It makes wonder where the never found material and immaterial things we leave behind end up. The Island of Misfit Toys? That space behind the washer where I'm sure all of my left socks ended up?

Regardless, I'm just happy the library has a lost and found. And that someone found my Doctor Who pencil case I've had since my sophomore year of high school for me. I think with everything else that is going on, losing that forever would have been a sign I should drop of out school.

Day 5: That is All

Again, barely posting in time but the post is still here. However, I'm somewhat drowning under large amounts of reading (in the forms of weird theory books that refuse to use words that you can actually understand), studying I still need to do, and work responsibilities despite the fact it's only the second day of school! Plus, if I don't take a break every now and then, I will go crazy. Due to this unfortunate reality of mine, I don't really have an extended amount of time to post anything too substantial.

I will say, however, that I do not like the new Starbucks logo. I'm not a graphic designer or anything, but it looks weird.

That is all.

Day 4 Wondering if I can Make it Through

I have a few things to share today, and the first is my schedule for this quarter. Partially because I can, and partially because my mom liked it last quarter when she had a copy of what I was doing during my day. English 441 is Literature for the Elementary and Middle School Teacher, and English 311 is Cybernetic Literature. The latter sounds a bit frighting and could be more difficult than I bargained for, but hopefully it'll be interesting. Actually, my whole schedule is already turning out to be incredibly stressful, so it appears I will have no life this quarter. Ah well, at least it's only 10 weeks long, right? Right?

You can click on the link to make it bigger if you can't read it very well. And I realize that it doesn't look daunting at the moment, but if you had the syllabuses for these classes you'd be freaked out too. Not to mention the fact that pretty much none of the books I ordered have gotten here yet, so I'll have to figure out a way to deal with that. Plus, I'll probably sign up for the volunteering I do on campus with the Japanese exchange program at some point, but I need to test the waters a little bit more for this quarter first.

Originally this post was just going to be my schedule, and then I was going to run off to study Japanese (because if I don't start studying hard now I'm going to get behind first day of class or no) but a friend I've been really good friends with since middle school released a really good EP today on bandcamp! Anyone reading this should use the player below and/or go to her bandcamp page to listen and look at the lyrics.

I am ridiculously proud of her, so go listen! Really!

Substitute for Day 1

Here is my video blog for WeThreeChallengirls this week. As I'm talking about new years and reslutions/goals, I figured it would be a good substitute for a "January First" blog.

Day 2 Traveling

It might be 11:14 on day two of my 2011 project, but I'm still going to write something because I told myself I would. I mean, I'm already one day behind, I didn't really need to add another this early into the project...

I won't make this too long because I do need to get to bed at some point due to the fact I start classes tomorrow (which I'm really not looking forward to) but I do have a few thoughts.

I've always kind of looked at traveling between my school home and my parents house as a sort of time traveling. I go home, and sometimes I feel like I'm only partially participating, but mostly observing a world I used to know but has gone on in time without me. I feel like I've traveled back in time two years, and I see a world and a time I don't quite belong in anymore. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I do realize obviously life goes on without me. However, I feel this time traveling so much more over winter break. I helped at the dance recital that I used to perform in, I went to my old church, and I see the friends I used to hang out with almost daily two years ago.

But now I'm back at school, and back in the present. While back in the past I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to go back to the future, but now that I'm here I think I'll be fine. Although, really, only time will tell how things will go.

But really, despite most of us not having blue boxes that are bigger on the inside, or not happening upon black holes, or possess a car that has been converted into a time machine by a slightly crazy long haired scientist, I feel like most of us travel in time in some way or another. And now, I must really speed up time and go to bed.

Day 1 (2)? Start of Something New

Oh look at that, I let another month go by again. Not that much has happened over break. Plus, I took my computer in to get the fan replaced and it took them about three times longer than they said it would so I had to borrow my mom's computer. I've been making things and playing video games and hanging out with people, but its hard to blog about such things when you're on a borrowed laptop. Not that my mom uses her computer much (or hardly at all) but I did feel a bit bad if I used it too much of the time. And I didn't want to create too many files or make too many new things that I'd have to transfer later.

Still, I meant to write over Winter break, but it never quite felt right. I would come up with things to write in my head, but I couldn't actually get it down. My thoughts have been a little tentative and messy lately, and I don't really know what to do with them. So, in an attempt to become a little more okay with the person I am in my head I've been thinking of doing something to get out of my head. And now I'm getting a little too figurative and weird, but really, this is going somewhere.

Even thought it's currently January 2nd I've been thinking of attempting to post something every day this year, BEDA fashion. Will it actually happen? Probably not, I'm sure I'll miss a few days and I've already technically missed day one. However, I think even if I just post a picture, something I learned that day, or just something I thought of it will work for what I want this to be.

As for today, I'll leave this here but I'll also direct you to my craft blog in which I am just about to post one of my last projects HERE. Feel free to look at that, and hopefully you'll see me again tomorrow :D