I watched two movies tonight: Welcome to the Dollhouse and Secretary. They were both okay. I liked Welcome to the Dollhouse a bit less than I thought I would mostly because there was no resolution, really. I know that sort of ending is more true to life, but dammit, I want a nice conclusion. That was my problem with Lost in Translation as well. Secretary was pretty good (Maggie Gylenhall was great), though a bit odd. Then again, it's basically an S&M love story, so I guess odd is just part of the deal.

I also managed to sort through some piles of stuff. Whee. I really need to work on my piles. I write so many random notes on little slips of paper, and then I just have them around my room until I get a chance to consolidate them and put them on my PDA or something. I guess it works as a system, but I should probably figure out something better. Like skipping the paper part and just going straight to the PDA.

I need to clean off my bed before I can even think about going to sleep. So I better do that.

Bleh. I feel crappy. I spent most of the day in bed. That was actually nice, but I'm not that tired now, which is no good. I have to wake up early (for me) and go down to St. Louis tomorrow. And I'm actually supposed to try and drive at least some of the way this time. Try and get more highway and city driving experience and all that. Whee.

And there's nothing more to say at the moment. Goodnight.

I got back from Chicago last night. All in all, it was a great trip. While there I saw Saved! (really good) and The Stepford Wives (okay). I played mini-golf, went swimming, and in general had a good time. Rather vauge description, but that's all you're going to get.

I saw Troy tonight, which was okay. Worth seeing, I think.

Saka has been seduced by the allure of Swat. My evil plan has worked. Bwahahaha! Actually, I'm really thrilled that he likes it so much. It's cool being the only Quincy person at my college, but if I have to share, I'd be happy to share with Saka.

I need to sleep. I'm heading up to Chicago tomorrow, which means getting on the train at 6 am. Ugh. So to sleep I shall go.

I'm home. The rain held off during Ben's graduation, which was nice. In general, the whole trip was pretty nice. I know that this is all rather vauge. I'm a bit out of it. I should go to sleep, but I don't want to yet. So instead I'm online, talking to people and checking email. I really need to deal with my overflowing inbox; I should probably just move on to a different address. And I will, eventually. Maybe. I feel bad giving up on this email address - I've had it since about 8th grade or so, and I've always disliked it when people change their email addresses all the time, since it's so easy to lose touch with them then. Ah well. I'll figure it out another time.

I finally have all of my grades for the semester. And I have never been so happy to see a B in my life. I still don't know what I got on my last English paper or the Milton final, but at least I know I couldn't have done too horribly.

I leave tomorrow for Williams, so I won't be writing much (more likely nothing) for at least the next week.

Time to finish packing.

I just got done working on this ability test for a career counselor that I'll be seeing sometime later this summer. My parents and I have decided that it would be best if I figure out what sort of job I really would enjoy, etc now so I don't have to go back to school later. It makes sense. The first two tests were easy and somewhat interesting - they were an interest and personality inventory. This one, however, being an ablitity battery - god, what kind of name is "battery" for a test? It sounds like I'll be physically beaten down - is timed, which sucks. It's back to standardized testing, almost. But at least this one is on computer and can be taken over several sittings. Still, it's not exactly fun. The last section I took involved identifying which note in a series had changed. Actually not too bad, except that the notes were all keyboardy and very fake - the word that comes to mind is Casiotone, but that may just be Soul Coughing talking. Anyway, they weren't nice musical notes. And they sounded kind of creepy - there may have been some minor and augmented chords tossed in there.

I have to pack tomorrow... My mom and I leave on Wednesday to drive up to Williams. Everyone else is flying, but we need the car to bring back all the stuff, so someone has to drive. Whee.

Swat's graduation is over now, so I guess that means I am offically a sophmore in college. Freaky.

Off to check email, since I've been ignoring it for the past few days.

Back home now. I spent most of today sorting through papers and such in my grandma's attic. Not the most enjoyable way to spend a day, but it has to be done. Just as bad was the car ride home. I really wanted to sleep, but I couldn't. Which is odd - I can usually fall asleep pretty easily on car trips. But I was awake the entire trip this time. Grr.

Fluff seems to be adjusting to our house and the other animals fairly well. He's on my bed right now - hopefully he'll stay here. My dad would not be pleased if he joined the other two cats on my parents' bed. So we're trying to get him accustomed to sleeping on my bed instead. We'll see if it works. At least he's gotten over his fear/anxiety of my laptop. When I took it out and set it up, he had to investigate it... Then when it started up and dinged, he spazzed a bit. But he's calmed down now. Wait, I spoke too soon... The fan just turned on to cool the computer down, and he sat up and stared. Ah well.

Nothing more to say.

Gah! There's some song on the radio that starts off with a sound clip that is almost identical to one in a Fugees's song - "Ready or Not," I think - and then it launches into a song that is not even half as good. Grar. That's it, I'm breaking out The Score, which I haven't listened to for ages, since my R&B and hip-hop stage. Yes, I, indie rock and emo devotee, went through a hip-hop stage. The first album I bought for myself was TLC's crazysexycool, I think. And I have Lauryn Hill and the Fugees in my CD collection, along with Aaliyah and Erykah Badu. And I used to have Monica and Mya, too. But I also used to have Spice Girls and Aqua as well. Hanson, too. Dear lord. At least I was never into boy bands. I can take some consellation in that, as well as in the fact that my music tastes have improved. Though I will say that the Fugees, Lauryn Hill, and Erykah Badu are still pretty good, even if they're not my favorites anymore.

Okay. That was an odd little tangent. But still on the subjext of music... After all that hard work I put into coming up with the best lyrics for that song meme, no one even tried to guess. *sniffle* So I'll just share the answers.

1)"Think of it this way, you could either be successful or be us." – Belle and Sebastian, “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying”

2)"Come on sweet catastrophe..." – Something Corporate, “Hurricane”

3)"Pleading protest, I grab my heart and scream out loud." – Rx Bandits, “Who Would’ve Thought”

4)"It is 5 am, and you are listening to Los Angeles." – Soul Coughing, “Screenwriter’s Blues”

5)"I'm feeling overblown, I'm feeling psycho... I saw you tumbling away." – The Kicks, “Mir”

6)"You think I'm crazy, but I swear it's true..." – Jay-Zeezer, “Interlude (I Swear It’s True)”

7)"Innocent farmgirl, raised by the aliens..." – Soul Coughing, “White Girl”

8)"I'd cover my heart and hit the deck..." – Dashboard Confessional, “I Am Missing”

9)"The tyranny of framing our attention with all the eyes they’re eyes no longer see." – The Weakerthans, “(Past Due)”

10)"If man is 5, then the devil is 6, and if the devil is 6, then god is 7..." – Pixies, “Monkey Gone to Heaven”

11)"Well maybe I'll put my love on ice..." – The White Stripes, “Black Math”

12)"Write in passing when there's time... Hide the paper, hide my mind..." – Sleater-Kinney, “Hubcap”

13)"At times you find that the truth is the best way out..." – Spoon, “Stay Don’t Go”

14)"Banter that shoots me through cannons and spillways, forests and nights as I walk through the hallway..." – The Rapture, “I Need Your Love”

15)"Such a beautiful kiss in the face of fear, such a beautiful song burns through your ears..." – The Anniversary, “Sweet Marie”

16)"But you'll find those lingering voices are just your ego's attempt to make it all clean and nice and make a moron out of you." – The Shins, “Fighting in a Sack”

17)"Words like razor blades slice into my veins, exposing all my pain, all that's left of me..." – The Junior Varsity, “House Fire”

18)"Had I know this last hour would come so soon, I'd have spent the last year speaking just to you." – Unsung Zeros, “Intermission”

19)"This paint by number's life is fucking with my head once again." – Eels, “Novacaine for the Soul”

20)"I don’t want to change the world, I just want to watch it go by.” – The Strokes, “Under Control”

We found Fluff, the stray cat that adopted my family over spring break and then disappeared. We've got a backstory for him now, and we have the cat himself. So we're up to a grand total of 3 cats now. Fluff is in better shape than he was, but still not great... And he's developed this thing against being picked up - he yowls and grumbles and eventually breaks out the claws and teeth. My mom has suffered the worst of it thus far. Hopefully he'll calm down and stop it. And hopefully he'll adapt to the other creatures and they'll get used to him. He and Dippy are okay so far, but Lucy keeps hissing, Fluff hisses at Missy, and Chip just runs away from him. Whee.

I'm going down to my grandmother's this weekend, then I'll be home for a few days before I head back to the east coast for my brother's graduation. Yay for long car trips...

And when I get back from that, I go up to Chicago again. That's a trip I really am looking forward to. Yay!

I love the MP3 player I got. I really do. But what I do not love is the fact that it is not cooperating at all. I'm trying to transfer files onto it, and it just won't do it. It even tells me it's doing it, but then when I go to look for them, they're not actually there. Arg. Very annoying.

I went up to the high school today and saw a few people. It was the last full day of school - finals start tomorrow. Er, today, actually. In less than 7 hours. Anyway, good luck to all my high school friends. I'm sure you'll do fine.

Back to trying to transfer files. Grr.

I made a miniscule dent in my list of movies I want to watch today. I watched two: Heathers and The Order. Both were okay - The Order even sparked a bit of a discussion between my mom and I over the theology behind it, and it motivated me to try and find something on the Carolingian order. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t actually exist. Which makes sense, since the subject matter of the movie doesn’t really lend itself to referring to an actual religious order, unless you want to deal with lawsuits and such. Anyway, both were decent movies. I’ll return them tomorrow and probably rent another one. Slowly, $2.99 at a time, I will work through my list of movies. I was tempted to see how much that would add up to, but I decided against it. I don’t really know how much of my money is going to be spent in this endeavor. Too much, probably, especially if I get any late fees.

My trip to Chicago was nice, despite the stormy weather. We saw Shrek 2, which was fun. Just hanging out in general was nice too. It was a short trip, but better than just staying at home pining away.

I still haven’t finished unpacking. At this rate I won’t have unpacked everything before I have to pack to go back. That would be rather sad.

I can’t think of anything else to say. My eyes are itching and being very annoying. Damn allergies.

Off to bed I go now. Or in an hour or two, anyway.

Taken from Brodie's LJ:

On your current playlist, hit shuffle and pick the first twenty songs on the list (no matter how cheesy or embarrassing), and write down your favourite line of the song. Try to avoid putting the song title in the line. Then, have your friends comment and see if they know the songs.

The only playlists I have are for mix CDs I've made, or my top-rated and most-played songs. So I just did the "Party Shuffle" option with my iTunes. And I didn't include the Sigur Ros song, since it's basically an instrumental. Same with Blur's "Sing," since I can't actually hear any of the lyrics. Anyway, here you go:

1) "Think of it this way, you could either be successful or be us."

2) "Come on sweet catastrophe..."

3) "Pleading protest, I grab my heart and scream out loud."

4) "It is 5 am, and you are listening to Los Angeles."

5) "I'm feeling overblown, I'm feeling psycho... I saw you tumbling away."

6) "You think I'm crazy, but I swear it's true..."

7) "Innocent farmgirl, raised by the aliens..."

8) "I'd cover my heart and hit the deck..."

9) "The tyranny of framing our attention with all the eyes they’re eyes no longer see."

10) "If man is 5, then the devil is 6, and if the devil is 6, then god is 7..."

11) "Well maybe I'll put my love on ice..."

12) "Write in passing when there's time... Hide the paper, hide my mind..."

13) "At times you find that the truth is the best way out..."

14) "Banter that shoots me through cannons and spillways, forests and nights as I walk through the hallway..."

15) "Such a beautiful kiss in the face of fear, such a beautiful song burns through your ears..."

16) "But you'll find those lingering voices are just your ego's attempt to make it all clean and nice and make a moron out of you."

17) "Words like razor blades slice into my veins, exposing all my pain, all that's left of me..."

18) "Had I know this last hour would come so soon, I'd have spent the last year speaking just to you."

19) "This paint by number's life is fucking with my head once again."

20) "I don't want to change the world, I just want to watch it go by."

That took much more time than I anticipated. Ah well.

Taken from Mama Cat...

[font color=yourljname][b]put your lj name here[/b][/font]... Replace the []'s with <>'s to get it to work. And I second Mama Cat's question of how this works...

Motivated Slacker

cate3710


You're a Narrative writer!


What kind of writer are you?
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Time to catch up on my web comics.

I'm still unpacking. It wouldn't take so long, except a) I'm lazy and b) I'md combining it with cleaning out my closet. Since I've grown some and gained some weight, not everything fits anymore. Thus the clean out. This entails trying on practically every item of clothing I own. Most of that clothing is t-shirts, but it's still quite a lot.

I'll be going up to Chicago the day after tomorrow - yay! - and staying until Saturday evening. I'm happy. That trip will be one of the three times I know I'll get to see Matt. That makes me sad - I wish I could see him more. But at least I get to see him.

Time for a bit more unpacking before bed.

I'm slowly settling back into the routine of being at home. I still haven't unpacked much of anything, but I'm getting to it. I've played with the pets, enjoyed sleeping in my large bed, and visited a few people. Other than that, I haven't done much of anything. This is only the second full day I've been back though, so that's not too big of a surprise.

I miss the fast Internet connection at school. Curse you, dial up!

Finals are over, which means that my first year of college is over. Wow. That went by fast.

So my RA, who is in my English class, mentioned that it's been the hardest English class she's taken. And she's a senior Honors English major. So that makes me feel better about struggling a bit in the class. Also, the final is apparently open book and open notes. Joy!

Time to finish studying astro, then sleep.

I just discovered that I got lotteried out of the oil painting class that I wanted to take. That makes me sad. So now I need to figure out something else to take... Only I don't know what. None of the philosophy or psych classes next semester sound appealing, I'm already taking an English class, I'm doing CS and don't want any more natural science than I have to... So I'm thinking about Intro to Film and Media Studies, but I'm not sure. Gah.

But I'll deal with that more in a few months. Now I have to deal with studying for finals.

This is so cool... Type in a name of a band you like, and it shows you this web/map thing of other similar bands that you may also be into. Pretty nifty, as well as having awesome graphics.

Rob rules. I skipped dinner, since the menu was crappy and I felt somewhat crappy, and I took a nap instead. When I woke up, I was hungry. So I found Rob, and he went rather Jewish-grandmother on me... Fixed me a grilled cheese sandwich and gave me some carrots and soda. It was quite nice.

I'll miss Rob over the summer. I already miss John a bit, and I'll miss Nikos, Nell, Rachel, David, Mark, Nile, Aatish, Uber-Matt, and so many more people. And Uber-Matt and Raoul won't be back next year, which makes me sad. I will also miss my Matt very much, but at least I'll see him during the summer at least some.

I'm looking into study abroad things. Since my only foreign language knowledge is very limited Spanish, I'm looking at the English speaking countries -- England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand. I think I'm leaning towards England or Scotland, but Australia could be very cool as well. I don't know yet. Some of the English classes at St. Andrews sound very interesting, but they're also hard to get into -- require something like a 3.7 GPA and such.

Okay... No more to say for now.

The large bulletin board we got at the beginning of the year (We, er, acquired it from the science building as it was being gutted) committed suicide tonight. It just fell off the wall, and part of the cork broke off -- one of the bits that the metal bar was attached to to hold it up -- so it's dead now. Very sad. But it saves us the effort of having to store it over the summer, at least.

I don't want to start packing and such, but I want to study even less. So packing it is. Whee.

Blogger has a new look. It took me by surprise, and I as still a bit disorientated by it. This is at least the second time in a year that they've changed it. I'm not sure if that's good or not. I guess if it works it's fine by me.

It is warm and humid... And it's likely to stay that way for the rest of my time here, and then be perhaps a little less warm but still humid when I get home. Whee.

I need to do more studying (Note to self: do not read Milton while lounging on my bed), and I also need to start doing some packing, I think. It feels weird to be going home in just a few more days. Not bad, but weird. There are things and people I'm looking forward to at home, but there are also things and people here that I'll miss. And some of them won't be back next year, which makes me sad.

Alright. Time to study. Or at least look at the book I'm supposed to be studying.

We had planned on going to go to a movie tonight, but we couldn't find a ride. So we played poker instead. It was probably the last game of the year, and I lost $5, leaving me down $2.85 for the year. There was one hand that wiped out about half my chips -- before that I had been up about a dollar. Oh well -- it was still cheaper than the movie would have been, though perhaps not as fun.

Sleep soon, then astro tomorrow. And Mother's Day. Don't forget to call your mothers or do something for them tomorrow. They've earned it.

My paper is done and turned in. I'm not sure how well done it is, but it being done is enough for me at the moment. I'm basically done for the day. I could work on my astro lab, but I think I'll do it tomorrow. And starting Monday I will be doing review for my remaining finals. Whee.

Things I am currently indebted to:

1) Long quotes eating up portions of my paper, saving me from writing quite as much. My prof may not be as happy about it as I am, but that's okay. And they're good quotes that actually pertain to my paper, so there.

2) My alarm clock, which woke me up so I could work on my paper, then sleep some more, then write more... I somehow forgot about the time I did this at the end of last semester and didn't start as early as I should have. Silly Jen.

3) Sleep. It does a body good.

I just spent waaaaay too much time sitting in front of the TV, watching Adult Swim with Rob and Charles. But it was fun. And it didn't require me to think, which was nice.

I'm going to go to bed, and when I get up, it will be time to attack my English paper.

I am very, very red. But I no longer have a farmer's tan... Instead, I have a lovely burn line around my tank top. Whee.

I had my abnormal psych final this morning. It was painful -- too many questions where she wanted specific examples of research. But at least it's over now.

Sarah Marie, you are a sweetheart... I got your card today, right after the final of doom, and it made me so happy. Thank you!

I went to the Philadelphia Zoo today... It involved too much walking, but other than that it was great. I took lots of pictures of all the cute animals. I want to adopt all of the cats, as well as the red pandas.

I went to a party that some of my friends threw last night. It was fun. I don't go to many parties... Especially not the big all-campus parties. But I like smaller things with people I know every once in awhile.

Tomorrow I need to get some serious work done... Studying for my psych final and doing a lap write up for astro [Edit -- LAB write up]... After that, I need to do my English paper. Whee. Such fun.

Back from the concert. The two opening bands were so-so, Something Corporate was good, and the three Yellowcard songs that we stuck around for sounded the same except for the electric violin part. It seems if you're busy jumping around all you can really manage is a chord or two. And if you're the drummer, you're just really good at hitting the snares over and over.

I was wrong about the teeny boppers. There were a few, but they were vastly outnumbered by junior high to high school aged girls clad in tiny tanks and low rise jeans or mini skirts. Oh, and flip flops. Why would you wear flip flops to a general admission, standing room only show? It just doesn't make sense. And for ever two or three Abercrombie/Hollister girls, there was either an Abercrombie or psuedo-skater boy. So Lauren and I spent a decent amount of the time making some snarky comments to each other about it all. We realized we were being bitchy, but we had also been unhappily confronted by a venue full of the type of people who we had spent a lot of high school avoiding. So we lashed out.

After the first band, we left the pit... There wasn't much point in being there (though some guys right in front of us did try to mosh to a poppy emo song, which was just really, really odd), and it was really crowded. So we went to the upper level and hung out up there.

All in all, it was decent. I had a good time hanging out with Lauren, and Something Corporate was good. And I got to console myself with the fact that with a few exceptions, the songs that the teeny boppers, etc really seemed to love were generally the songs I skip on my CD.

Time for sleep now, so I can finish up astro in the morning.

I'm on the Something Corporate site right now, trying to find out when the doors open for the show tonight... And I'm a wee bit frightened of some of the postings by fans for tonight's show. Lovely IM-style misspellings... At least one girl who's just turned 13. I shouldn't be too surprised, since Yellowcard is also playing, and they're TRL fodder (though the song isn't bad, I will admit). So it may be me, Lauren, and some psuedo-punk/emo teeny boppers. Can't be any worse than the John Mayer and Guster concert with all the Abercrombie frat boy types... And if they're all tweens, they'll be short, so I'll be able to see the stage easily. Or intimidate them with my height and get up closer. Bwahaha. At least the music will be good.

Too many memes... This one is good:

Which Eddie Izzard "Dressed to Kill" line are you? by Saphyne
Username
Eddie Izzard quote:	"'What is it, Lieutenant Sebastian?' 'It?s just the Rebels, sir - They?re here.' 'My God, man! Do they want tea?' 'No, I think they?re after something more than that, sir. I don?t know what it is, but they?ve brought a flag.''Damn, that?s dash cunning of them!'"
Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

Colleen, your mix CD is finished. As is my sunset sketch. My astro paper, however, is not finished.

Good things about tomorrow: I get to spend part of the day in Philly and see Something Corporate in concert.

Bad things about tomorrow: I need to work on my astro paper, and I will also be missing the showing of Equilibrium since I'll be in Philly. I wouldn't care about the movie, except Christian Bale is in it. And Christian Bale is cool.

There are clouds moving in, blocking the sun. This is bad for astro and the sunset sketch I have to do. Grr.

Yet another reason why it takes me far too long to make mix CDs... Even after I've narrowed down the songs, I have to figure out what order to put them in, so that the end of one merges nicely with the start of the next one. This quirk has only been amplified by my time at WSRN, I think.

Completely unable to resist posting this, since it's just so weird... Thanks to Camden:

Your Homocidal Rampage! by crash_and_burn
Your name:
Weapon of Choice:	Chainsaw
Your Favorite Target:	Nuns
Your Kill Count:	1,250,428,282
Your Battle Cry:	"Allow me to molest your face with this rod!"
Years You Spend in Jail:	23
How Much Money In Damages You Cause:	$192,620,577,369,802
Your Homocidal Insanity Level:: 45%
Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

And if you go with my full name, well...

Your Homocidal Rampage! by crash_and_burn
Your name:
Weapon of Choice:	Your own bare hands
Your Favorite Target:	People from Florida
Your Kill Count:	956,506,828
Your Battle Cry:	"Moo!"
Years You Spend in Jail:	9
How Much Money In Damages You Cause:	$159,568,375,333,717
Your Homocidal Insanity Level:: 100%
Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

100% homocidal insanity level. Dear lord. Maybe I should stay away from Nikos.

Chorus is over for the semester... The concert was definately long, but it also sounded really good. Yay.

Yesterday wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be... English class was half an hour shorter due to the English picnic, which was nice. The main problem of the day was having to lug around my bag (with my Milton book in it) all day. My right shoulder hurts from it. Owie.

Need to shower so I can be ready to study psych at noon.

My body currently feels somewhat dead, while my mind feels quite dead. It's not a very good mix.

I just got back from choir rehearsal. It was long and involved a lot of standing and singing high notes. Whee. I'm very tired, so I'm going to crash now... Luckily I did my psych assignment this afternoon so I can crash.

Friday is going to be not fun. I leave the dorm around 10 am for astro class, then go to the gym, then go eat lunch, then kill an hour, then go to English class, then go to the English department picnic, then go warm up for choir, then perform for 2 and a half hours, then stumble back to ML sometime after 10:30 pm to collapse. Yipee.

So I've sort of figured out how I'm going to get to and from the Something Corporate concert on Sunday. At least I'm confident my friend and I won't be sleeping in the park or anything.

The Tuesday after that (May 4th), some people on my hall are probably going to go to the zoo. I'm used to the St. Louis Zoo, which is free, except for the special exhibits. The Philadelphia Zoo doesn't work that way -- admission is about $16 for adults. But they also have tiger cubs, so it's worth it.

I got my psych assignment -- the one that was due last week -- done this evening so I can turn it in tomorrow. Whee. Now I just have to do the reading and work for this week. And do the work for all my other classes, of course.

It's hard to believe that school is almost over... Only 4 more days of classes, then I finish up some papers and take some finals and I'm gone. It's kind of weird... But nice at the same time.

Some quizzes, since I haven't taken any for awhile...


Emo! You're very in touch with your emotions and
that's what I like about you! It's all about
the music for you... I have pity for your
tortured soul...you're just like me...


What genre of rock are you?
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Love. You Truly Desire Love. You long for someone
to hold you and take the pain away. You haven't
been in much relationships or you need to work
on how to handle them. You always seem lost in
a daydream about the person you care about
most.


What Do You Truly Desire? *PICS*
brought to you by Quizilla

Pictures don't seem to be working... Rar.

I had forgotten how absolutely fantastic Saves the Day's Stay What You Are album is. Well, not really forgotten, but I had been distracted by other good stuff, mostly indie rock. But god... This album is great. I don't think there's a single song on here that I don't like. And my firm belief that this is one of the best CDs I own, when contrasted with Pitchfork's rating of it as a 2.9 ("heard worse, but still pretty bad") probably explains why I'm only occasionally happy with their reviews. They have given good reviews to other groups I like (Ted Leo, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Wrens, The Postal Service), but they've also given pretty horrid reviews to other CDs I love, like The Get Up Kids' Something to Write Home About, Hey Mercedes' Everynight Fireworks, and Jimmy Eat World's Clarity. I would say they just really don't like emo, but they did give Jets to Brazil's Orange Rhyming Dictionary, which I would consider at least somewhat emo, an 8.7, well in the range for "exceptional." Oh well.

Still working on my emo mix, and still have way too many songs. I guess that's just because I have a lot of emo and emo-ish music in general. At this point I could make a boxed set of emo mixes... Good grief.

I need to do work. I've started some research for my astro paper (which will be turned in on the later turn-in date, without the optional WA draft)... But I still need to figure out what I'm doing for my last Milton essay (yay for extensions). And I need to catch up with psych work, and then finals will attack and I need to be ready for those. Gah.

But after 3 more weeks, I get to go home, where I shall sleep and do things that aren't really work, like reading piles of books and such. Yay!

But that's 3 weeks away yet. So... Time to do some work.

I played poker last night and made a $7 profit. Yay! We had so many people playing that Rob had to go get his chips and start a second table... It was cool. The tables rejoined after enough people had dropped out, and I cashed out then. I kind of wanted to keep playing, but my mind was feeling kind of fuzzy, so I figured I should stop. I think it was a wise decision.

Today will consist mostly of me doing work, especially because I didn't do much yesterday. Rar. I will find time to go to the last ML softball game though -- to watch, not play. And then this next week I need to start thinking about finals. Whee.

I'm a CA! I just got the email yesterday... I'm really happy. I now have the power to influence my own group of freshman. Bwahahaha! Not sure who my partner is yet, but it will most likely be John, since we requested to work with each other.

I saw Mystic River last night... The acting was good, but I had mixed emotions about the movie as a whole. But it was worth seeing.

I'm very hungry... Must eat brunch.

Just got done playing my first game of Wink. It was fun, but rather violent. My elbow is sort of bleeding, and I've got some painful rugburn on the tops of my feet. But I'm feeling invigorated, which is good... It means I can attack Milton again. Paradise Regained, here I come.

So the housing lottery is over now. Thank god. That was way too stressful and not at all fun. When my number was called, it seemed Dana was still open. I was happy. I got to the Dana table to sign up. And then I was told it was closed. And I hung my head and sighed and walked over to the ML table and took Rob's room.

On the plus side, I know some people who are going to be in the basement, and they're cool, so we'll make hall life if it kills us.

We have specs right now. Well, right now they're off doing their own thing, but they'll come back sooner or later. One of them reminds me so much of Claudia that it's really kind of freaky. Similar height, hair color (or at least hair color when I first met Clauds), sort of a similar style, a fedora... It's really odd. She seems cool, though, as do the other 2 girls. So that's nice. Not sure how showers and such will work out tomorrow, though. That'll be interesting.

Time to work, or at least think about working.

Just finished my astro homework. It really shouldn't have taken me this long. But it did, since I got a late start and let myself be distracted.

We're thinking maybe Dana now. I'd be okay with that. I had crossed it off the list due to the scary halls (they zig and zag, yay for riot-proof hallways) and also because I wasn't sure if I should be in the same dorm as Matt. But I can deal with the hallways, and we do fine in the same dorm now... And it's a happy medium between our other options. Of course, this may all fall apart when we get to the lottery and realize that the 3 Dana doubles have just been snatched up. That would suck, and it's not that unlikely. So there is still a chance that we'll end up in Rob's room. It really just all depends. But at least it will be over soon.

So despite my best efforts, my choices have basically come to this: Willets or ML. There is going to be a waiting list -- I have no doubt about that. My number will save me from that fate, but it won't help me get a better room. So. It's looking very much like ML basement, in Rob's room. Whee.

Must do astro homework and stop allowing myself to be distracted.

Looking at swimsuits right now. I know none of mine are going to fit, since I've had a small growth spurt over the past year. However, I'm not really sure if I should bother... I hardly ever go swimming. I feel like I should go more, though...

Ride the Tide starts on Wednesday night. We'll have three specs (prospective students) in our room. Yay for not having any floor space... Not sure what the heck we'll do with them for the first few hours -- we have the housing lottery to deal with and then chorus. I guess they'll just have to tag along or something. Or we'll have to hand them off to someone. I'm sure we'll figure it out.

I have a new toy: a MP3 player. It makes me happy. It will make me even happier after I get my iTunes files converted over and put on it... But as it is, Nell (who I bought it from) had some music on it that I've been enjoying -- Death Cab for Cutie that I hadn't heard, some The Decemberists, some Ani, and plenty of classical. Yay for new toys!

I dyed my hair last night. Actually, Rob dyed it for me. He did a good job, too. The color looks more brown than red, I think, but I still like it. Yay for having auburn hair and not light brown or dirty blonde or whatever my hair was doing before.

I need to go work on psych now. Excitement.

I feel kind of crappy at the moment. What I thought could be my saving grace has disappeared and left me with what I had before, and while it's not the worst thing, it's also not the greatest. *sigh* If you asked me how I would have felt about this situation at the beginning of the year, I would have said it would have been fine, great even. But ever since fall break, it's been changing, and now I'm neutral toward the whole thing. And ever now and again other factors get tossed in that make me less than neutral, and that makes me more desperate to find something better. And ever attempt I've made so far has failed. And that just makes it worse, somehow. To know that I almost had it figured out, and then lost it. Only a few more days to worry about it now... On Wednesday it will all be settled. Whee.

Went into Philly yesterday, which was fun. Bought two CDs -- new Get Up Kids and The Von Bondies. Both are good so far. Went out to dinner, which was quite yummy. Gave my mom her birthday present, which she liked. Played poker with my brothers and some people in the dorm. We took my brothers' money. I'm finally up for the year again... I was down $10.35 last week, and I'm now up 15 cents. Yeah, it's not much, but it's an improvement.

The weather is great... Maybe almost too warm, but beautiful regardless.

Time for brunch.

It's almost 3 am. I just finished up my psych paper. Whee. That was fun. I'm not very happy with it, but at least I have something. Since my brain shut down ages ago, that's saying quite a bit. In fact, I don't know if my brain ever started working today. Well, it did function long enough for me to concoct a new housing scheme (the latest plan involves a quad in Wharton) and chat with Nell (whose MP3 player I have every intention of buying), but then it lapsed back into a not very productive semi-functional state. Which meant I didn't get much work done this afternoon (read: got no work done this afternoon), so I got to do it all after dinner and chorus. Starting a paper at 11 pm the night before it's due is not a good idea, and it's generally not something I would do. But I did it this time. And tomorrow I get to start a lab write-up the day before it's due, as well as do my Milton reading the day before it's due, perhaps finishing it right before class. Whee! And then next week I have another lab, an astro paper, picking my room, regular assignments, and perhaps the beginnings of an English essay. Such fun...

Oh. The playlist for my radio show on Tuesday night, the last one of the semester: (No WSRN playlist songs, since it was a special show.)

Jump Little Children: Too High
Rusted Root: Send Me on My Way
Jack Johnson: Flake
Eels: Dog-Faced Boy
Gorillaz: 19-2000
Radiohead: 2+2=5
Beta Band: B+A
Guster: Two Points for Honesty
Dispatch: Bats in the Belfry
Jeff Buckley: Last Goodbye
Save Ferris: One More Try
Dave Matthews Band: One Sweet World
The Postal Service: Such Great Heights
Cat Stevens: Moonshadow
Ben Harper: I Shall Not Walk Alone

In general the songs were longer and I talked more than usual. That's why there are probably fewer songs than usual. Anyway, it was a good show, I think.

Alright. officially 3 am now. Bed calls.

I'm making an emo mix CD, and I'm having some difficulty with it... Namely because I'd really like to put the entirety of Save the Day's Stay What You Are on it, but if I do that it's not exactly a mix, now is it? Had the same problem, but to a lesser degree, with Dashboard Confessional and Jets to Brazil. Will have a similar issue with Something Corporate and Pinkerton, no doubt. Gah. Too many good songs.

So the blocks were posted today. We didn't get the Lodge. *is sad* But after seeing the party that was occurring in the courtyard on Sunday, I'm not as sad as I thought I'd be. Plus, I got my lottery number today... 881. Rising sophmores have numbers between 800 and 1170, so I did fairly well, which means I should get a pretty good room. We'll see what happens.

An odd coincidence to note... I'm reading Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa for my abnormal psych class. It's talking about Sir William Gull at the moment, who was one of the first people to focus on anorexia in the modern sense (i.e. unrelated to religious fasting, fasting as a stunt, etc), and he apparently came up with the term "anorexia nervosa." And as I was reading along, I also learned that he helped treat Prince Edward for typhoid fever, and afterwards Queen Victoria began to rely on him and he was the physician for the royal family. And then something hit me: this is the guy from From Hell! I just looked it up and confirmed it. Sir William Gull, who is the culprit in the movie/graphic novel, which follows the "royal scandal" theory of the murders. Weird. So the guy who may or may not have been Jack the Ripper (or at least may have been involved in it) presented the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa to the world.

21 Grams doesn't seem to be showing tonight. Grr. I really wanted to see it, too.

Block info is posted on Monday afternoon. Gah. That's so far away...

Listening to The Beauty Pill... The Unsustainable Lifestyle is quickly becoming my current favorite album. It's good stuff, mellow at times, but with this sort of tension to it all the same. I don't know...

I feel like I'm not thinking straight at the moment. I feel very detached from myself, like my mind has removed myself from my body, and now they're both just kind of sitting there, like "Now what?"... I need to do work; I really, really need to do work. But it's easier to sit at the computer and keep checking my email even though I'm not actually expecting any messages, even though I need to write emails to other people.

I feel very blah. I lost another $5 playing poker last night. That means for the entire year I'm down about $10... It's really not that much, when you put it into the context of money spent for entertainment and such, but I don't like losing. And I've just kept on losing in poker for the past month or so. I think I'll stop playing for awhile. Next time people play, maybe I'll just watch. Be like the girls in a casino (or at least girls in movie casinos) that hang out by the guys, flirting and such. Or not.

I think I always write like this after I read Portia's blog. Even though I only met the girl once, and don't really know her at all, and don't really know who or what she's writing about, I still visit her blog every now and then just because of the way she writes. Clauds writes like that too, sometimes... It's just so amazing, so beautiful. Like music and poetry in the form of prose, losing the rhyme and rythm but still keeping the spirit of it all.

I just finished translating more Bach for chorus. Well, it's actually copying a translation into the music book, but it's work nonetheless. Just work that doesn't require me to actually know German.

To do this weekend: Catch up on astro and psych reading, do a self-portrait for art, email my advisor about classes for next semester, deal with my SCCS account (ha, I've been saying I'll do that ever since winter break!), avoid stressing about getting a Lodge.

21 Grams is showing on campus this weekend... I think I'll go see it tonight.

I have formulated a backup plan in case we don't get the Lodge and have pretty sad numbers: ML basement. To be more specific, Rob's current room. As much as I'd kind of like to be on campus next year, I do like ML, and wouldn't be too upset about living here again. And rooms in the basement are really not in high demand, so it would be pretty easy to get. Also, it's a nice room. Big windows, big room, big closets. Okay, so there's no hall life in the basement. But there's also no hall life in Danawell, and I don't think I want the hall life of Willets (though I do want the Willets cat)... Wharton and Worth are impossible to get into, Parrish is single-sex, which I don't want... Same with Whittier... Mertz is unavailable... PPR is off campus, and if I'm going to be off campus, I'd rather be in ML... Same for Strath Haven... And New Dorm will probably be hard to get into, since it's well, new. And I don't even know where Woolman is.

I guess for me, if we don't get the Lodge, next best would maybe New Dorm (but if I'm a CA, and it's not ready in time, what do I do then?), and then probably a tie between Danawell and somewhere in ML. But it's not just my decision, I do have a roommate. So... Marci, any thoughts on the situation?

I'm going to attempt to answer my questions for psych without finishing my reading. I feel bad, but I still have about 60 pages to go, it's already 10:45 pm, and I'm tired. Gah. And tomorrow night I get to study for astro and read two more books of Paradise Lost. And then comes the blessed weekend. But the weekend means that I should really catch up on astro reading, as well as finally finish up those damn cover letters and actually send them out so there's a chance I could maybe, maybe get an internship.

And all I want to do now is sit and do nothing at all. Maybe read a bit, but probably not. I'd like to talk with someone, just have a nice chat, but not really have to think about it much, just feel and respond. I want to sink into my bed and not get up for hours, days, forever. I want to sit in a warm bath until the water goes cold, then empty it out and refill it and do it again. I want to have a cat in my lap, warm and purring. I want my headache to fade away and have the world fade away with it as I close my eyes and sleep.

But I can't.

I turned in the blocking applications this morning. So know I get to wait around anxiously until Monday or so, hoping we get a Lodge. It won't be the end of the world if we don't, but I'd be disappointed. *crosses fingers, hopes*

Time for a nap now...

Extra long radio show...

*Franz Ferdinand: Cheating on You
*Dios:The Starting Five
Pretty Girls Make Graves: Chemical, Chemical
The New Pornographers: The Laws Have Changed
Hey Mercedes: The Frowning of a Lifetime
The Weakerthans: The Reasons
*The Walkmen: The Rat
*The Turn-Ons: Won’t Come Home
Blur: Beetlebum
*Elbow: Buttons and Zips
*My Bloody Valentine: Only Shallow
Sleater-Kinney: The End of You
Lennon: Trying to Make Me
*The Beauty Pill: Terrible Things
Fiona Apple: Limp
*East River Pipe: Where Does All the Money Go?
*Blonde Redhead: Elephant Woman
AFI: Girl’s Not Grey
Poe: Terrible Thought
Challenger: Input the Output
Joydrop: Sometimes Wanna Die
Sneaker Pimps: Low Place Like Home
Nine Inch Nails: Head Like a Hole
*Enon: Murder Sounds
*The Envy Corps: Keys to Good Living
Radiohead: National Anthem
Dictionaraoke: Tired of Sex
Weezer: Tired of Sex
Cursive: Some Red Handed Slight of Hand
Schatzi: The Spider Smells Disaster
*Need New Body: Opofest

Only one more radio show left this semester... It makes me sad.

Woohoo! The final draft of my Milton essay, all seven lovely pages of it, is now done and printed out. This makes me happy. And I'm made even happier by the fact that there's no psych class tomorrow (er, later today...), so I get to sleep in a bit. Niftiness.

Speaking of sleep...

Today has been interesting thus far, mostly because I managed to throw up three times in about seven minutes. Twice walking from the gym to the fieldhouse, and then once in the locker room. Whee. I don't know why it happened... I feel fine, except for my cold. I guess all the phlegm that had settled in my chest decided to tickle my gag reflex or something. Anyway. It wasn't pleasant.

Now that I've grossed you out, how about some good news? This Tuesday my radio show will be two hours long! The guy who has the show before mine has dinner plans, so he won't be able to stay for the second half of his show... So my show will be from 7 to 9 pm this week. Check it out.

I just played with Legos for about 2 hours... I built a pretty yellow house and some other stuff. Yay for regressing back to childhood! Whee!

Avoiding doing actual work. I don't feel like reading any more astro, and I really don't feel like working on either of my papers. Blah. So I'll work on cover letters for possible internships instead, which I need to do anyway.

I finally checked something out of McCabe. Granted, it was not a book. Heaven forbid I check a book out of the library. No, I checked out The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys on DVD, and I'll probably watch it tonight. I saw Big Fish last night on campus, which was pretty good, though I felt like the ending came kind of suddenly. Nonetheless, good.

Alright. Cover letters.

Two Weezer-related items...

One, the guy who is remixing Jay-Z with Weezer, yielding Jay-Zeezer, recently finished mixing "Dirt of Your Shoulder" with "Surf Wax America"... While the other songs he's done have been so-so (the guy isn't an actually DJ, unlike DJ Dangermouse, who did the Grey Album, so that's not a big surprise), but this one is actually pretty good.

Two, while scanning the news at Weezer.com, I learned that Dictionaraoke.org, "The Singing Dictionary" has a version of "Tired of Sex"... It's rather interesting, and hard to describe. It's basically electronic (I assume from online dictionaries prounouncing the words) voices spliced together to the song... The poor dictionary guy can't hold out those long notes, though. It's sad... The wailing "Ah"s are just not the same. Nonetheless (or maybe because of that), it is quite entertaining.

I need to go be productive. I really, really need to go be productive.

Yay for the English Department. I was sad when I discovered I wouldn't be able to go to Jonathan Franzen's talk tonight (due to a conflict with chorus as well as the tickets for the talk being sold out), but this afternoon there was an event hosted by the English Department where he came and talked and answered questions and such. So that was cool... He was interesting to listen to, pretty funny, and nice. And I got to have one of those awkward fan experiences where you cautiously approach the person, book in hand, and try to not sound stupid while making conversation as you get your book signed. I did get the book signed; I'm not sure if I managed to not sound stupid or not.

In other news... The schedule of courses for next semester is up. I think I've got everything just about figured out. I need another natural science course, so I'm going to take CS 21, which is the computer science course between the class where you learn how to turn on a computer and the one where you have to be at least a semi-experienced programmer. I'm also going to take an English class on American poetry, an oil painting class, and a philosophy class entitled Theory of Knowledge. The prof for the philosophy class is the same guy I had for intro philosophy, so it should be fairly interesting -- the man could be the stereotype for the kind of wacky, eccentric, semi-confused liberal arts prof. He's awesome.

Anyway, with those classes, my schedule will look something like this:

MWF, 11:30-12:20: Theory of Knowledge
MW, 1:15-4: Oil Painting
TTh, 9:55-11:10: American Poetry
TTh, 2:40-3:55: Computer Science

Somewhere in there I will also be tossing in at least one PE class... I could do fitness training (which is just going to the gym, which I already do) the entire semester and finish up my PE requirement... I could take that on MWF from 10:30-11:20, or TTh from 11:20-12:35. I could also take yoga during the second half of the semester, which sounds cool, except for the fact that it's at 9 am. Or maybe I'll do both... And then definately get the credit for the fitness training, but maybe just do yoga for fun and not worry about being there all the time and getting the credit.

Alright, need to eat dinner and then go to chorus, where I will sit out and follow along with the music. With my cold it's not even worth it to try and sing... I know I won't be able to hit most of the notes. So I shall sit out and pay attention, and maybe do some other work on the sly. We'll see.

My astro homework is half done... No, I have not being working on it all this time. I took quite a lengthy break to hang out with Matt, then ended up chatting with Rob and Dawn and helped Rob set up a blog for himself,The Amazing Life of Bobby D. Now I will probably work on astro a bit more before I fall asleep. Or I could read the archives of Bobbins, the predecessor of Scary Go Round, until I felt like sleeping. But while that would be more fun, it would not be quite as productive, methinks.

I submitted a poem to one of the lit mags on campus, and I just got a nice, impersonal rejection email. Whee. I can't really complain... I wrote the poem in about 5 minutes in the airport the day before submissions were due. But still, rejection is never nice.

I barely made it to WSRN in time for my show... I missed the shuttle, so I had to dash up there. Dashing with a cold in the rain is not fun, especially when it's up a large hill and hten 5 flights of stairs. Gah. But I did make it, and the DJ before me was nice enough to toss on another song so I could catch my breath and such.

Anyway, on to the playlist. A decent dose of emo... It seemed to fit with the rain and my cold and the resulting blah feeling.

Jets to Brazil: Lucky Charm
Something Corporate: Fall
*Beauty Pill: I’m Just Gonna Close My Eyes for a Second
Pete Yorn: Strange Condition
Further Seems Forever: The Moon is Down
*Stellastarr*: In the Walls
Ozma: No One Needs to Know
*Blonde Redhead: Falling Man
Jump, Little Children: Singer
*Her Space Holiday: Sleepy California
The Ataris: My Reply
Taking Back Sunday: Great Romances of the 20th Century
Saves the Day: As Your Ghost Takes Flight
Weezer: The World Has Turned and Left Me Here

Off to do astro homework now.

Listening to The Grey Album right now... Jay-Z's Black Album set to the Beatles' White Album... Sounds like it would be a really weird combination, and it kind of is, but it's also pretty cool, too. Too bad the DJ responsible for it got into a fair amount of trouble.

I feel no desire to do anything right now... At least not anything productive, like working on my astro or English. I wouldn't mind trying to figure out what classes I'm going to take next semester, but the info isn't out yet. And I'd like to work on filling out the forms to block for a Lodge, but I can't do anything until I have the floorplans and know who our 5th is. Arg. So the only things that I both want and can do is procrastinate and sleep. And while sleep is useful, procrastination isn't.

There are Legos in the breakfast room to play with, courtesy of Rob. And there's a hammock in the back yard as well... Also courtesy of Rob. Yay for Rob.

The hall's entertainment for the past week or 2 has been courtesy of John and Nikos, due to their ongoing pranking feud. So far John has taken Nikos' door of its hinges and hid it... Then Nikos took John's door, switched it with his, and rearranged some stuff in John's room... John, in retaliation, moved all of Nikos' stuff into the hall and did some stuff to his computer... Nikos returned the favor. (They actually both spent 2 nights sleeping in the hall, too...) Then John took this cardboard box that Nikos had drawn a face on (hard to explain what it looked like, but it was kind of a large cardboard puppet), and torched it, sending Nikos pictures and putting the remains on Nikos' desk. And before Nikos could get back at him, John struck again. This time he took Nikos' bed and put it on the roof above the bike room. It was quite impressive. Nikos is going to have to come up with something pretty damn cool to top it. I fear that John's fish is going to be the target. Nikos won't actually hurt Buddy, but he may disappear for a bit.

Bedtime, I think.

I blew up at lunch today, tired of all the complaining and scheming and such. If he's going to ask us for advice, he might at least have the decency to listen to it and take it into consideration, instead of just ignoring it and doing the opposite. Rar. Part of me does feel bad for him, but another part wouldn't mind seeing her turn him down, seeing his attempts fail, just because he's doing what he always does, what we've told him to try not to do. *shakes head* He's not learning from his mistakes; he just keeps on making them. And that's frustrating to watch when you've been trying to help. But I've tried, and I'm done with it now.

I feel a bit better. Still sick, but not quite as bad. Went to the jazz concert last night -- it was very good; I enjoyed it a lot. Went to Sager for a bit... It was okay, but we didn't stay too long.

I should do things today... Like my art homework, and my astro reading and questions... I should read some psych if I get the chance, or maybe read some Milton. Maybe work on my resume and write some letters. But I'd really rather lounge on my bed and doze on and off for the rest of the day. I'm such a lazy slug.

I feel shitty. Sore, scratchy throat. Runny nose. Tired and kind of achy, mild headache. The apple juice sort of stung as I drank it. The pancakes had no taste at all. Ah, the joys of being sick. I will go to the jazz ensemble concert tonight regardless of my state... But Sager is starting to look iffy. Darn. At least I don't have a lot of work that I absolutely must do this weekend. That enables me to laze about without feeling too guilty about it.

Ugh. I'm very out of it. And singing rather high notes for the past two hours didn't help my budding headache much.

I made the mistake of running on the track for a bit yesterday. My legs have been killing me all of today... Damn shin splints. Shooting pains suck.

I need to finish my psych homework, but then I think I'll just soak in the tub and then crawl into bed.

A few things...

Playlist for last night:

*The Constantines: Shine a Light
*The Weakerthans: One Great City!
*Dios: All Said and Done
The Cardigans: Fine
Ben Folds Five: Kate
*The Beauty Pill: Goodnight for Real
Saves the Day: Ups and Downs
*Franz Ferdinand: Take Me Out
OK Go: Get Over It
*Beulah: Landslide Baby
*Preston School of Industry: Escalation Breeds Escalation
Jeff Buckley: Eternal Life
Chris Cornell: Pillow of Your Bones
*The Decemberists: Los Angeles, I'm Yours

Fluff apparently has feline leukemia and FIV. This is not good news. His fate is uncertain thus far, but my mom would like to keep him if possible, since he's not very adoptable being terminally ill and all.

Jonathan Franzen is coming to campus next Wednesday. I was really excited about it... But I just got an email saying that it would require reservations... And I clicked on the link and such... And it's already full. *curses* I may try to sneak in anyway, because I really want to go.

Time to do laundry.

So we did end up going to the dance after all. Yay for the puppy-dog eyes. Anyway, the dance was fun, even though the music was screwed up... Someone messed up some of the equipment or something, so there was a period of at least 15 minutes where there was no music at all. But they finally got it fixed, and the dancing continued.

My paper for astro is almost done. I'll probably work on reading psych this evening, or maybe do some art. And then Monday will be spent doing my Milton essay. Such fun.

So... Screw. We're not going to the actually dance, because he's really tired. So I wouldn't be able to make him dance or anything. It sucks, but oh well.

Anyway, our little 'skit' was interesting... I suppose I should explain a bit first. Here at Swat, Screw (short for Screw Your Roommate), is a pretty major affair. Sharples is filled with people looking for their blind date... And in order to find them, they have to do something... Dress up like something, do a certain thing, something like that. Examples from tonight: Aeriel (as in the Little Mermaid), looking for her prince. Day looking for Night. Peanut butter looking for jelly. And so on.

So Matt and I weren't informed of what we'd have to do. We knew we were being screwed with each other, but that was about all. At the last minute, we were informed. Matt would be locked to a chair (with a bike lock)... The key would be hidden. In order to find the key, I would have to find the clue. The clue was written on his arms, along with some other things. And each hint or red herring was covered by a glob of whipped cream. Oh yeah, I also had my hands tied behind my back. So I wandered through Sharples, and located Matt... Then I had to lick the whipped cream off him to find the notes... And I finally found it and got the key. But we attracted quite a crowd. And many pictures were taken as well... All in all, it was pretty interesting.

I think I'll go give him puppy dog eyes and see if I can convince him to go to the dance after all. I really do want to go... I feel silly doing the part at Sharples if I don't even bother to go to the dance.

Off I go.

The Pretty Girls Make Graves and Saves the Day concerts are both a no-go. But the Something Corporate concert will probably happen, which is cool. And by not going to see Saves the Day, I can go to the jazz ensemble concert instead. So all's well that ends well, I guess.

I saw Taking Lives last night... It was pretty good, albiet pretty screwed up. But it was cool, because it was full of twists and therefore pretty unpredictible. That's always nice in a thriller.

Must go shower so I'm presentable and such whenever my brother and his new girlfriend show up at my door.

In theory, I should be at the gym right now. But I really can't motivated myself to untie and take off my boots just to put them back on 30 minutes later. Yes, I am lazy.

The boots are neccessary because it did indeed snow last night. Not as much as they had threatened... In fact, not all that much at all, but it is still snow and still messy.

I took my astro midterm today... It wasn't too bad, yay! And I don't think it's worth all that much, either, which is nice. I don't really like the pressure of big tests that decide most of your grade.

One more class, and then it's officially the weekend for me... Whee!

So it warmed up a bit today, the snow melted, and it seemed to be spring again. And now this: a winter storm warning tonight into Friday, with a possible 5 to 8 inches of snow. Gah!

I need to do work. But I keep on getting distracted by things that are more interesting and fun, like talking to people and reading comics. Must focus...

Looking at various concerts in the area... I may still try to go to either the Pretty Girls Make Graves or the Saves the Day/Grandaddy concert on the 26th and 27th, respectively... But Something Corporate, with Yellowcard, will be in the area on May 1st, a date that would work well for me, I think. Death Cab for Cutie is playing on April 12th, but that's a Monday... So it's less than ideal. And Sleater-Kinney is playing on April 29th, which is both a Thursday as well as the night before my choir concert. Gah.

So I guess I'm going to see if Peter is still up for Saves the Day (or see if he'd be more interested in PGMG... It's cheaper and he may like it more), and/or see if I can find someone to go to the Something Corporate show. I know someone who'd like to go, but I think she's saving her money up for this summer. Hmm. We'll see what happens.

I should get some sleep now...

Someone please put me out of my misery. My misery being me wanting very much to just sleep all day and not being able to focus on the reading I need to do. And there are the two papers that need to be written by early next week. But I feel completely unmotivated, wanting nothing more than to laze about and stare vacantly into space. I miss break.

Oh, by the way, happy St. Patrick's Day.

Playlist o' the week:

*Pixies: Here Comes Your Man
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Rich
Down by Law: No Equalizer
*Black Flag: What I See
Bif Naked: I Love Myself Today
Finch: Postscript
*Erase Errata: Go to Sleep
Rage Against the Machine: Take the Power Back
The Movielife: Takin’ It Out and Choppin’ It Up
Reel Big Fish: The Kids Don’t Like It
Alkaline Trio: All on Black
Taking Back Sunday: Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)
*Franz Ferdinand: Darts of Pleasure
Eels: Dog Faced Boy
Bad Religion: The Defense
Operation Ivy: Take Warning
*The Holy Ghost: Seein' is Believin'
AFI: Silver and Cold

Lots of loud, punky music. Whee. To give me energy despite the sucky weather. And someone called me (someone not even related to me!), which made me feel special.

Memo to Mother Nature:

Yesterday, spring was out in full force... It was warm, sunny, a few flowers were blooming, etc. Today it is cold and snowing. This change in weather is not normal, nor is it acceptable. In fact, it just plain sucks. Please explain yourself and remedy the situation ASAP.

Thank you.

I'm back at school... Whee... I woke up early for some reason, so I have 20 minutes to kill before I have to walk up to campus. Yay.

It's supposed to snow/sleet tomorrow. That's just wrong. My flip-flops and I are morally opposed to this news, but there's little we can do about it. Today's high is in the 50s, though, so I shall wear flip-flops today and then go back to normal shoes tomorrow.

I have about 7 weeks of classes left, and then finals. That's really not that long -- a month and a half, maybe 2 -- when I remember I've already been here for about 6 months. It doesn't feel like it's been that long... But the calender doesn't lie.

Wow, that took all of 5 minutes to write... I guess I'll just head up to campus early and walk nice and slow.

I forgot to post and publish the last entry. I only posted it, so it was hidden away from public eyes. Whoops. But that's been fixed now. I'm sure you're all very excited.

There's a stray/lost cat around the house. Actually, there seem to be three, but only one of them is friendly enough to let us interact with it. In fact, it's a very friendly cat. A bit dirty and mussed up, but quite nice and obviously domesticated. And rather pathetic as well... Which works to its advantage, since it's currently hanging out in a room in the basement, with some food and a bed, out of the rain. We're not sure what we're going to do with it yet... If we didn't already have two cats (and a dog and a rabbit), we'd probably keep it, because he/she is a sweetheart... But that's not going to work. The Humane Society no longer accepts strays, and the city shelter doens't have a no-kill policy, so things could end bad for Fluffy is she goes there... (Yes, we have dubbed it Fluffy. A silly name, but it appears to be a Maine coon/orange tiger mix, and it is indeed fluffy. So there.)
So... Anyone want a friendly kitty cat?

I'm heading back to school tomorrow. Whee, but also eek. I have a draft of my astro paper due Friday, as well as my astro midterm. I have a WA draft of my English paper due early the next week... Screw is this weekend, my brother is probably going to stop by the same day... Housing needs to be resolved, I'll need to pick classes for next semester in the next few weeks... I need to look into internships more... Gah.

But before I can do any of that, I need to sleep.

I've watched 3 movies in the past few days... State and Main, Secondhand Lions, and From Hell. State and Main was pretty good... Secondhand Lions was also good, and made me cry. From Hell, a movie about Jack the Ripper with Johnny Depp (not as the Ripper, but as a police inspector), was quite good... It was also rather bloody at parts (obviously), and pretty damn freaky at parts as well.

I worked on my resume today. Whee. It still needs work, but at least I've done something with it. That makes me feel less guilty.

I acquired a new Magic 8 Ball. Over winter break I got a Muppets' one, which doesn't really answer any questions, but does offer you various Muppet quotes This new one is based on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books, so it offers such tidbits of wisdom as "Unfortunately yes," "Misfortune imminent," and "My sources say tragedy." Quite interesting, but perhaps not the best source to turn to if one is seeking uplifting guidance.

Time for some sleep... I need to do stuff tomorrow. Like go to track practice and hassle people. Yay!

It turns out that the place in Minneapolist where I got my tattoo done, Saint Sabrina's Parlor in Purgatory, has a website. It's pretty and uses Flash and is rather impressive. They don't have much of anything up about the girl, Claudia, who did my tattoo in July, but they say they will soon. She was cool, and about as far from your stereotypical tattoo artist as you can get, except for the tattoos up and down her own arms and legs.

Anyway, this has no relevance to anything whatsoever, except for the fact that I found the site and I still very much love my tattoo.

And now, bed. Maybe.

I'm home now. Home is nice, because it's the reason why I have a purring fuzzy cat next to me. Yay! And there is nothing else to say, so goodnight.

I really need to stop looking at the links pages of the web-comics I read. It's bad. I keep on finding more comics/online graphic novels that are really good. Recent finds: Demonology 101, about a teenage girl/demon and that never-ending battle between good and evil, only it's not quite *that* simple... Flipside, about a girl whose personality changes when she puts on her jester outfit, her friend, and their adventures... And No Rest for the Wicked, which features fairy tale characters... sort of.
None of those summaries do the stories justice. Read them. They're good.

My packing basically done, except for some random last minute stuff. I'm packing light this time. Well, light for me, anyway. Anyway, break should be fun... I don't have any work I have to do, but I'm probably going to try to mull over topics for my next English paper and maybe get a start on my astro essay. Or maybe I'll just play The Sims until the wee hours of the night and then sleep ungodly late.

I am now going to attempt to drag myself away from the computer, in hopes that I will not find another comic that has about 3 years of archives that I desperately want to read. Instead, I will return to the world of the living. Human contact good.

One of my CAs from orientation is going to be an RA next year. ML 1st's RA, no less. Maybe next year I'll get to make fun of him for having such a long walk to campus.

The other possible 5th for the Lodge can't do it, so that just leaves us with our first possibility. He's not sure yet. But we can't really think of anyone else who would work as well... So we may have to start bribing him. Or perhaps use our charm. Oh, who am I kidding. We may just have to resort to force. The four of us could probably take him -- 3 of us go to the gym on a fairly regular basis. But hopefully he'll agree of his own free will so I won't have a feeling of guilt to deal with.

One more class until spring break starts. Whee! And practically no work to do over break. Maybe some psych reading if I feel like it, or I could start working on my astro paper or think about my next English essay. But there's nothing I have to do. It's quite nice.

Off to kill time.

Just so you know...

Sin sprang from Satan's head, making her Satan's daughter. But then Satan slept with her, and she became pregnant. Then the war occurred in Heaven, and Satan and his rebel angels were cast into Hell. Sin was also banished to Hell, where she gave birth to Death (well, sort of... More like Death gnawed his way out of the womb...). Death apparently had no infant stage, because he immediately chased down Sin, his mother, and raped her. Sin got pregnant again, this time with Hellhounds. There was another gruesome birth, only this one turned her lower half into that of a serpent. And of course, the Hellhounds feel the need to crawl back into Sin's womb and be reborn every hour.

So. Sin is Satan's daughter as well as his mistress. And Death is their son, but he's also Sin's half-brother as well as her rapist. And the Hellhounds are Sin and Death's children, making them Satan's grandchildren or something.

Milton, you are one sick and messed up man.

Okay, so I didn't fail my abnormal psych midterm. I'm not sure how well I did, but I'm confident I at least passed. Yay. Now if only I could just go back to bed for the rest of the day. It is cloudy and drizzling and yucky outside, and I have no energy at all. But I have art this afternoon, and I don't skip classes, because that is not the perfectionist Jen way.

About a day and a half until spring break. Whee!

I left my room about 30 minutes ago to get a bagel from the breakfast room. On my way there, I bumped into Nell, who was in the front hall, waiting for the shuttle. Rachel, Nell's roommate, has the 10-12 shift, so Nell thought she'd hop on and hang out. Nell and I started chatting, and then the shuttle came, and we were in the middle of the conversation, so I got on the shuttle as well. And so Nell and I rode around on the shuttle with Rachel and Brodie until about 12:15, when a replacement finally showed up to take over. And then I finally made it over to the breakfast room and got my bagel. All in all, the most fun I've had while on a bagel run.

Reading through my psych notes this evening has made me feel like I may not take any more psych classes. All my notes have doodles in the margins, and a very high rate of things like "I need sleep" written here and there (often between lines of completely illegible notes)... So... Yeah. I'm interested in most of the readings (though more of the mental/cognitive stuff than the biological/physiological), but class just cannot hold my attention. And that's a definite problem.

We were assigned a paper today in astronomy class. Whee. It shouldn't be too bad, which is good. And the midterm for that class will also be non-scary, since it's not worth all that much. Yay!
I'm not overly interested in the subject matter of my astro class, but it's probably one of my favorite classes this semester. Part of it is because it's really not difficult at all. But a lot of it is because Professor Jensen is awesome. He reminds me quite a bit of Klauser, actually. He's not quite as quotable as Klauser, but he does have some good things now and then. Today he called Pluto "the freakshow of the solar system"... Past ones include "Let's do it... Just because it's fun" (about determining the speed of the Earth's rotation, and sounds a hell of a lot like a Klauserism), and "The NASA term for it is de-orbiting. That means it crashes" (during a discussion of what will happen to the Hubble Space Telescope if no more repairs/rocket boosts are okayed).
Also, today there was a cool demo involving conservation of angular momentum. Imagine a figure skater during a spin, only replace the skater with a lanky college prof and the ice with a lazy-susan type deal... And then toss in a bicycle wheel that can be used to change directions. (Trust me, the demo makes much more sense is a) you know what angular momentum is, and b) you actually see it...)

Okay. Will continue my break from studying away from the computer, and will review some more psych stuff before I go to sleep.

Things I've learned this afternoon:

1) I have no idea how to study for my abnormal psych midterm.
2) It is a bad idea to study when you are tired.
3) 2 hour naps are nice.
4) I'm going to go into class tomorrow, look at my midterm, and cry.

*sigh* So I have not-so-high hopes for my psych midterm... I'll do some more studying tonight, after chorus, and hope for the best.

There's a new t-shirt that I've been seeing around campus... It says something along the lines of: "Swarthmore College: Academics, Friends, Sleep. Choose 2."

The shirt is fairly accurate, or at least it's felt like that for this past week. Academics always gets high priority, and then friends and sleep switch off. Lately sleep has been winning out over friends (except for on weekends), mostly because when my work is done, I just don't have the energy to do much of anything. It sucks. But at least spring break is almost here... Then I can sleep a lot, and academics will be much less of an issue (still an issue, though... I know I'll have at least a little work to do over break).

Oh. This morning I was held hostage by a red dry erase marked wielded by Ethan in the breakfast room. He was using me as a shield to protect himself from mini-Matt. I escaped, and then the battle resumed. It was quite entertaining. You really wouldn't think that muffins would be very effective weapons, but it seems they work rather well.

Time to study for my midterm.

Playlist for my radio show:

Built to Spill: Stop the Show
Eels: Souljacker I
*The Weakerthans: Plea from a Cat Named Virtue
*The Wrens: Faster Gun
*Preston School of Industry: Walk of a Gurl
*The Dirtbombs: Get it While You Can
The Shins: We Will Become Silhouettes
The Postal Service: We Will Become Silhouettes
*Capitol Years: Jet Black
Juliana Theory: If I Told You This Was Killing Me, Would You Stop?
The Junior Varsity: Housefire
The Vines: Highly Evolved
*The Features: The Beginning (Week One)
*Coach Whips: Extinguish Me
Sleater-Kinney: Prisstina
Jimmy Eat World: Goodbye Sky Harbor
The White Stripes: I Think I Smell a Rat

The Shins' cover of "We Will Become Silhouettes" is so different from The Postal Service's version... I've never listened to one right after the other before, and I've never realized how different they are... The lyrics are one of the few things that remain the same.

Anyway... Moving on. I won't be doing a show next week since it's spring break and I'll be back home. Whee! But the week after that I'll be back on air.

The scavenger hunt is offically over now, which is nice. Even nicer: the team of ML 1st and basement won. Woohoo! I'm glad the madness is over, though it was fun while it lasted.

Gah. I haven't gotten much done today. I went to Target to pick up my film, and there were issues because my photos had been mixed up with someone else's and I ended up getting charged too much. And there was no one at the photo counter, so we went to one of the checkout lanes, and they sent me to the service desk, and they said they couldn't help me, and sent me back to the photo area, where there was still no one. Finally someone showed up... One was pretty bitchy, but the other one helped me out, and eventually I got my own photos, negatives, and a refund. But it took too damned long. Gah.

And when I got back to ML, we did more scavenger hunt related things... Got a tour group and then some people on my hall spelled out ML with our bodies. Eventually I took a nap, which therefore ate up some of the time I should have been using to study and such. But it's too late to do anything about that now.

I have about 2 hours until the scavenger hunt study break/judging thing... So I'm going to read some astro, I think. At some point I need to study for my abnormal psych midterm, but to be quite honest, I don't even know where to start with that. And I also need to read the first 2 books of Paradise Lost. Gah yet again.

I wish it was spring break already.