Talk, Talking A Lot, But It's Still Talk

I wish the 15th would hurry up and get here - I want to watch Juno like twenty times in a row.

(Oh.  Hey, everybody.  What's up?)

I'm still as busy as hell, but it's easier to handle now that I'm feeling more upbeat.  And this weekend is actually going to be relatively leisurely, since my Evolution & History of Life midterm isn't hanging over my head anymore.  I hate that class.  I get up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday already bored in anticipation of the lecture.  And the lab.  Dear God, the lab - easily the most aggravating two hours of my week.  Like last Tuesday?  We're still studying ancient sea organisms (even though you'd think we'd have progressed to land-dwelling creatures by now), and our lab assignment was to separate a bunch of fossils of the same phyla into species.  The only catch was that some of the fossils were in pieces, sometimes very small pieces, and we still had to try to classify as many of those as we could.  Even so, it should have taken all of fifteen minutes, but since the girl I usually partner with wasn't there I got stuck with the most anal-retentive guy in the room.  Apparently he missed the part of the instructions that allowed us to disregard the pieces that were too small or warped to identify, because he was determined to classify every frigging granule.


And so on.  For almost an hour.  We were the last ones in there by far, and the TA kept coming over and saying stuff like, "You guys don't have to be super-specific - some of the pieces aren't identifiable.  Really."

You don't say.  Needless to say, it was kind of a pain, and pretty typical of that lab, sadly.

But yeah, it's been kind of a weird week overall.  My social life suddenly picked up, although I don't think I did anything to instigate that.  And I had this weird prophetic dream on Monday: I dreamed that the fire alarm went off while I was in the shower, and when I woke up I was like, "Ha, that would be a pain in the ass" and went to take a shower.  And I kid you not, just as I was turning the water off the alarm started shrieking. 

I did not go running outside in my towel, however.  Maybe if there was smoke in the hallway I would have, but come on.  Everyone was just kind of ambling outside, so I took the opportunity to get dressed first.

And on Tuesday I was a lab rat in one of the sociology department's experiments.  I won't go into a ton of detail because it really wasn't that interesting, but basically I was paid $20 to spend an hour filling out questionaires and spitting in a test tube at certain intervals.  I also had to write a speech at one point, but that part was designed to stress me out.  The thing is, I figured out what was going on pretty early in the game, so it really wasn't that painful.

I don't know if any of that makes sense.  It was kind of a weird experiment, though - I can't really think of a way to describe it that wouldn't take ages, and it's really not worth the effort of writing it all out.

There were other incidents as well, but I'm going on forever here so I think I'll just disregard them.  Actually, I think I'll stop now and go outside - it's ridiculously nice out today.  And later on I'll probably go see 21 - it feels like I haven't been to a movie in months (although truthfully I saw Vantage Point while I was on break).  Anyway, I'm off.

...So.  It's been a while.  Hi?


If you don't want to read all that, here's a summary: I had some issues, but now they're about gone; I pulled my first (and kind of unnecessary) all-nighter; I got a piercing my parents would disapprove of; and I've been a vegetarian since February.  Actually, that last one didn't make it in there, but that happened too.  Can't even say why.  Oh, and I'm experiencing one of those "What the hell do I want to do with my life?" things, but I'll save that for another day.

Anyway, now I'm taking a break from studying for my Roman Civ midterm, but it's 4:00 now so I should probably get back to that.  I think this has been sufficiently long and "TMI" worthy.  Bye, internet.

I saw Juno last night and loved it.  That's the first time I've actually been enthusiastic about a movie since I came home for break - I wasn't crazy about I Am Legend for whatever reason, and Atonement nearly put me to sleep (although I read an excerpt of the book and liked it...maybe I should have read it first.)  And I did like Sweeney Todd, but the music was stuck in my head for two weeks and that started getting a little old.

I think I'm one of maybe four people who didn't like Atonement.  Maybe it's just me, but the "staggeringly lovely" cinematography didn't make up for the fact that there was this huge section in the middle of the movie in which nothing happened.  I can only watch characters walk around looking depressed and pensive for so long before I start going a little nuts.

Juno, though, was excellent.  And hilarious - I'll try to remember to shout "Thundercats are GOOOOO!!!" if/when I go into labor.

I'm also kind of into Heroes now - I got the first season for Christmas and thought it was pretty cool, but I hear the subsequent seasons weren't all that amazing.  What I really want are some new episodes of House, but there's that whole strike thing.  *grumble*

Strange to think that I still have a week of break left.  *ducks random projectiles*  I guess I'm starting to get ready to go back - it'll be good to have some sense of purpose again.  So far over break I've 1) read sixteen books, 2) been to a few movies, as stated above, 3) watched the first season of Heroes, also as stated above, 4) gained four pounds back (ag!) but I'll lose them again once I get back to school, 5) started re-teaching myself how to play the piano with some degree of finesse, 6) finished a short story, and 7) lost a game of Monopoly...to my rabbit.  And so on.  Nothing terribly productive.

Anyway.  I'm going to my brother's hockey game in a few minutes, so I'll just cut this terribly fascinating update short.

I always forget how far superior my shower at home is to the ones at school.  It was tempting to stay in there for as long as the hot water lasted, but of course I have more important things to do now that I'm home for break.

Big, important things.  Like...uh...work out.  And play Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon while watching some of the first season of House (seriously I'm going through withdrawal - I need some new episodes!)  And play with my rabbit, who wouldn't let me take him out of his cage last night but apparently has now forgiven me for being away.

And he'll get sick of me eventually, since I don't have to go back to school until January 20th.  College wins!

Speaking of college, my exams went pretty well, which is surprising given that I put off studying a tad too long.  The Stats exam could have gone better, but I wound up with an A in the class so the test itself has been rendered insignificant.  Somehow managed to pull off an A on my Biology exam, which was over 26 chapters of crap I didn't care about.  I've already forgotten almost all of it - it's a beautiful thing.  Philosophy went really smoothly, but that probably isn't a good thing.  Every time I think I do well on something in that class I'm unpleasantly surprised later.  So we'll see.  Mythology, though, was a breeze.  I actually liked that class, so studying for it was almost leisurely in a way.  I finished in fifteen minutes and got a perfect score on the thing.  Which I'm not smug about at all.  *lies*

Not that it was that big of an accomplishment: it was only over four chapters.  *ego deflates*

Right, I'll shut up about all that.  Actually, I'll shut up entirely - I'm hungry.  Hope everyone has a good Christmas, if you celebrate it, and if not, then at least a good break.

Happy Thanksgiving, homies.  Well, what's left of it, anyway.  I indulged in the typical Turkey Day gluttony, felt slightly ill, walked/ran seven miles on the treadmill, felt better, and then had a two-hour discussion about my schedule for next semester (among other things) with my dad.  So, as you might imagine, I'm pretty tired now, and I have this song stuck in my head even though I didn't really like the movie version of Beowulf. 

...So I had it in my head that I was going to talk about NaNoWriMo, but it's bound to be long, and like I said, I'm pretty tired, so I'll save that epic entry for tomorrow.

I know.  You're on the edge of your seats.

Anyway, I hope no one ate their way into a stupor, regardless of how fun that sounds.  Later, guys.

I'm home for Thanksgiving break and it's lovely, even though my sleeping schedule is no longer even remotely compatible with the rest of my family's.  It was so weird that everything got quiet around 11 - I wasn't even tired until about two in the morning. 

I'm so glad it's break, though! *stretches luxuriously*  Of course I've got stuff I need to work on, but it's much more palatable when I'm not stuck in my dorm room as usual.  And this is an odd thing to notice, but I forgot how much better the quality of light is in my room at home - in my dorm the light has this weird yellowish tinge all the time, because I don't get a lot of good natural lighting.  I expect that I will soon become yellowish as well if this keeps up.

Shut up, it's possible.

I'm having a little trouble concentrating at the moment because my rabbit keeps jumping over my feet and distracting me with his cuteness.

...And my brother totally just tried to tip me out of my chair (I'm in one of those curved gaming chairs).  He's reading The Odyssey right now, which is kind of funny because I'm reading The Iliad.  And at some point he developed these insanely awesome juggling skills that he demonstrated practically as soon as I walked in the door.  He probably spent weeks honing an completely impractical ability - we're alike that way.  I mean, I'm teaching myself how to write with my left hand.

Expect frequent updates as to how that's going, by the way.  (Kidding.)

But now that I think about it, it's more practical than juggling.  If I break my right hand I'll still be able to write.  I'm defying nature - it did not grant me ambidexterity, but I'll screw with the order of the universe anyway - total badassery.  My brother, meanwhile, will be entertaining screaming five-year-olds at a birthday party.  So tell me, which one of us is the cooler one?  Like I even need to ask.

Anyway, damn, I'm starving.  I'm gonna go grab some food now.

Attempting to write and talk to my family at the same time, and my conversation is for crap right now because of it.  Not that it matters - I'm being treated to a monologue about grade curves at the moment, so I don't really have to do more than make affirmative noises.  Just got back from the Stats Test of Doom, which actually wasn't as terrible as the professor made it out to be.  As in, I don't think I failed, so I don't need to reassure myself that life will go on, my parents won't really kill me, etc.  Good thing, because I was giving myself pep talks all day and am now ready to beat my inner cheerleader to a pulp.

And I did really well on Monday's exam, so even if I don't get an A on this one, I'll at least have a little room for error.

This is all terribly fascinating, I'm sure.  Sometimes I read my past entries and just marvel at how boring my life is, and how often I can talk about the most random stuff.



(Just for the record, I'm no longer on the phone.  My family grew frustrated with my monosyllabic responses.  Whatever - I'm actually going home for the weekend, so they'll get the benefit of my glorious company and sparkling conversation then.  [/ego])

Anyway, now I can start studying for my Mythology exam in earnest (for some reason I'm particularly motivated to kick ass on that test, probably because I'm actually interested in the material), and maybe I'll actually write something this weekend.  I have a chapter of Accepting Irony to finish - I know how I want it to go, I just need to get it written, is all.  The eighth chapter is actually unexpectedly lighthearted, but that was partially done on purpose - it gets more dramatic very soon, so I wanted to compensate a little bit.

I'm also considering participating in NaNoWriMo this year.  Tentatively considering.  But moilio sent me the link to the site, and the more I think about it the more I want to try.  If anything, it'll at least force me to get off my ass and accomplish something, even if it's utter crap.  At least it's crap I can edit later.  The only problem is school - I can't say I'm willing to let it interfere with studying and so on, especially since I have to keep up my GPA so I can keep my scholarships.  We'll see.  At least I have a very vague plot idea - that's a start.

Did not realize I had this much to say.  But I think I'll go to bed now...damn early classes.