Thursday, March 10, 2005

"Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag" On iTunes: "Dream On" Aerosmith I went to Busch Gardens yesterday with some friends from school, as many of you know. However, as many of you may not know, it rained all day. And that is not an exaggeration in the slightest. It was always raining, sometimes pretty full out and others just a drizzle, but it was there all the same. Thank goodness we stopped at a local dollar general to buy ponchos. We got there earlier than the guys did, so we ended up having to kill an hour. First we stopped in a pet supermarket and I played with the bunnies. One of them nibbled on my hand and it was very cute. That was just the start of my adventure with animals. The woman behind the counter looked at us and asked if we were skipping, though. Hysterical. I was like, "Actually, we go to FSU. It's spring break." She looked surprised and said, "Oh, you're all in college? You look so young!" Funny, especially since that's the second time it happened this week. After that, we went to the mall. It was just barely 10 a.m. so a lot of the stores weren't even open. We went up to the food court and got some breakfast so we wouldn't be too hungry in the park. (Nobody likes to pay theme park food prices.) Despite the rain, the whole day was really a lot of fun. First time I've ever been on a wooden roller coaster, too. Gwazi is the newest coaster there, and it's totally old school and is the best ride I've been on in a long time. I think it's my favorite now, even over the Hulk. It was just so amazingly fun, heh. I rode that three times, the Kumba once, the Montu twice, and then we walked around, watched the bird show, and saw a lot of other little exhibits. Because it was raining, there was hardly anyone there at all, and there were no waits anywhere. It was fantastic. One of the highlights of my day was my adventures with the animals, as said before. Mostly with birds, though I do love Busch Gardens because of all the fantastic animals there. I got to watch the Bengal tigers for a little bit, for instance. They're huge, lol. And I saw one of them crawling through the grass. Talk about mixed feelings there. So incredibly cute on the one hand, but then again, imagining that thing crawling like that towards you is absolutely frightening. The sheer size and strength of these guys is just awesome. Okay, back to the birds. I like birds, a lot. One of these days I'd like to own some, but for now I'm content with stalking the pidgeons on campus. The bird show they have at BG was pretty much none existant because of the bad weather (most of the birds are tropical and can't really deal with the cold, wet weather) but they did bring out some birds for us to talk to or hold even. Lolita is their famous one, and she says all kinds of crazy stuff. It was funny. They also had a big white cockatue that I got to hold. Whee! The best part came when we walked through the bird sanctuary thing they have. It's not terribly big, but there are 180 birds in it, surprisingly enough. Most of them are small, colorful parrots probably, but they had some others that were just gorgeous. I was walking from bird to bird pretty much, making kissy noises and trying to get them to talk to me while also asking a whole bunch of questions to the guy who worked in there. When he started talking to one bird he asked if I wanted to feed it and I was like, "Yeah!" It was so cool. He gave me a little grape and I held my arm out to the bird. Eventually, it worked up enough courage to jump onto my arm and then I fed it the grape. I did it again with another bird, and then I fed live worms (the small, wriggly kind) to a bird of the flat-billed variety. It was so fantastic. ^___^ That was my exciting day. By the time we left (around 4:30, I'd say), my shoes were thoroughly soaked through, my socks were soaked, the bottom half of my jeans were soaked, even the arms of my jacket were soaked. We ended up going to Chili's to get a bit to eat before parting ways, and that was nice. Went home, got rid of the wetness, jumped in the hot tub to warm up for a little bit, and then I watched a little bit of West Wing and went to bed. And now I'm actually up before 10 a.m. again and I don't even have to be. Crazy!

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Tuesday, March 8, 2005

Bill Nighy Is Freaking Awesome On iTunes: "Is It Real?" Cowboy Bebop Fantastic break so far. I know you're all dying to hear about every minute of it but let's be honest, I don't have that kind of time here. So I'll give you the quick abridged version of what's happened so far: Friday: Drive home. Eat Donados pizza and wings (mmmm, the best). Watched Shaun of the Dead finally, funniest fucking movie I've seen in a long time. I heart zombies. Saturday: Went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure to meet up with Christa, a girl me and Jen met during our People to People Europe trip a couple summers ago. Actually ran into our good friends Lauren and Whitney, so we all spent the day hanging out. Marvelous coincidence, really. Went to see Hitch with my friend Babs; loved it, very funny. Sunday: Went to a memorial service for one of my old teacher's wife. She committed suicide (found out recently she was bi-polar), totally shocked the hell out of me, so I cried a lot. Played a little racquetball, got some awesome pointers. Monday: Did a whole lot of nothing. Got my hair trimmed (I'm growing it out - to my chin, at least), stopped at Starbucks and chilled. Picked up an application from the daycare right around the corner from my house for a possible summer job. My neighbor/friend Erica came over for a little bit and is still way too skinny (long story). Haven't seen her cats yet, that makes me sad. Today (Tuesday): Went to lunch with Jen and her friend Amy at Panera Bread. They didn't have their potato soup and that was sad. They dropped me back off at home. Dad had been at work but he decided to come home and spend the day with us since it is spring break. We went and played racquetball again. I like to think I've made some drastic improvements over the last couple times I've played. Came home, chilled. Started laundry. Watched Jen play Zelda. Made plans for rest of week, got tickets to see the Indians spring training in Winter Haven (that's baseball, people). Watched Shaun of the Dead again with my brother. And that pretty much brings me to the present. Tomorrow me and Jen are going to Busch Gardens with some friends from school (Alicia, Angel/Will, Will's cousin Gabby/Gabe, Jerry, Juan, for those who are curious). It's like $50 so I wasn't going to go at first but I got peer-pressured into it. Hopefully I'll make it back in time to watch Brazil with my friend David but we'll see what happens. Saturday we're going to the Indians game and I'm greatly looking forward to the ice cream and sunburns. Still haven't gone to the beach yet... hopefully that'll be what we do Thursday. Keep your fingers crossed. Also, I realized that even though I'm almost done with the second Paranoia chapter, it's on my laptop and so right now I have no way to transfer it. Hopefully I'll figure that one out soon... I know it's possible to switch the cords around here. I think I'll do that when my brain doesn't feel like it's about to explode. So, yeah. I've been relatively busy. It's been fun, and good news, my other awesome friend Meg will actually be here Thursday for the beginning of her spring break. I love all this crazy timing. It's brilliant. So cheers to all of you, keep your chins up. I'll be back shortly. ^_~

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Sunday, March 6, 2005

Baby Is This Love For Real? On iTunes: "Beating Heart Baby" Head Automatica It's officially Spring Break for me, thank god. The drive home was long without actually being intolerable. There was an accident that held up traffic on the turnpike. The car was on its side against the guard rail, completely trashed. There was glass and metal and stuff still littered around, and then there this coke can sitting in the middle of it all, completely unharmed. Crazy. I spent the first hour and a half crocheting, and then the last two hours were spent talking about the problems with education in America, including inequality, funding, and the stupid fucking grade plan that's in place in Florida right now. We also talked grad school, London, my sister's current flirtation with this guy in her dorm, and other stuff. It was great. I also had my first counseling appointment on Friday and it was pretty interesting. The whole experience went pretty much the way I thought it would, and I'll be going back the Thursday after spring break for more. We talked about a lot of broad stuff, although there is one definite problem that I know will come up again and I'm not quite ready to talk about here yet, so... yeah. lol My friend Babs introduced me to this great band, Head Automatica. She's talked about them before, but this was the first time I actually listened to them and they're pretty cool. Especially the song I'm listening to now... wow. I love it. I'll try and get a sample up or something if I figure out how to do it/where to host it, blah blah. Played racquetball today with my dad, learned some tricks, had lots of fun. Now I'm going to eat a delicious, tasty dinner. Mmmm. I hope to get the second Paranoia chapter up in the next couple days. Until then, ciao and stuff.

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Thursday, March 3, 2005

I Am Shamelessly Self-Involved! On iTunes: "Admit It!!!" Say Anything Well now, it's been an interesting week, hasn't it? Midterms galore. I made a 95 on my biology test the first time around so I didn't have to retake it today, which meant I could focus more on Italian and Intro to Education, both of which I have tests in today. In fact, I took the Education one this morning, and I think I did all right. I know that I got the progressivism questions wrong though and that pisses me off. That class pisses me off because even though we actually did cover a lot of the stuff that was on the study guide, we kind of didn't. If that makes sense at all. Oh well. I have Italian at 2:30 so I'll be studying again for that shortly, mostly focusing on conjugating verbs in the present tense, I think. I studied for this most of last night, and I think I know the stuff pretty well. The only thing about languages is that it's so easy to mess up because there are so many freaking exceptions and variations on EVERYTHING. Hopefully I'll keep a clear head and just go in and stay calm and approach the shit like it's just any other day in class. No pressure. I also have to pack sometime tonight. I have so much laundry it's not even funny. No, it really is, actually. It's hysterical. The weather though is going to complicate things.. how do I know what to bring when it changes all the time? Bringing a little bit of everything is not as easy as it sounds, heh. I'm still bringing my bathing suit, though. I am going to the beach, and I will get a tan, and I will go to any and all lengths to achieve this. Say Anything is quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. I have not been this excited about new music since I got Muse, I think. Pretty much. It's awesome. They're awesome. They sound fantastic and the lyrics are amazing and witty and well-written. There aren't enough words to describe how cool they are so I'll make some up: fantabuloso, extraordinatasic, incredigasmic. I copyright those words, by the way. Okay, time to study. Quack quack, duckies. Quack quack.

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Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Someone Remind Me To Go To Bed On iTunes: Are you kidding? It's like 1:20 in the morning, my roommate has been in bed for hours. Music, pfft. Wow, I spent a lot of time in the lounge tonight/today/this morning. It was fun, and I want Panda to be my new best friend now because she's cool and has lots of pets. I also found the greatest thread ever in the Music, Movies, and TV forum entitled Batman: Hero or Sociopath?. It's threads like these that make me seriously regret the fact that I didn't read a lot of comics as a whee little girl. Damn the barbies! Seriously though, it's awesome, check it out. I absolutely loved reading through everybody's theories, and even thought I'm not exactly 100% up on Batman and his various antics through the years (and comic series), I still love the character and the ideas behind it and seeing all that come together and be discussed creates this wonderful, warm, fuzzy feeling inside. I think I'm going to have a nice, happy cry now.

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Sunday, February 27, 2005

I Will Rule On High As Supreme Queen Of All Things Even Questionably Weird And/Or Dorky On iTunes: "Admit It!!!" Say Anything I'm feeling pretty productive this weekend, and it's a very satisfying feeling. Moreso, I'm very pleased with myself because I'm setting goals and getting them done. I've studied for biology both yesterday and today for a total of about four hours and I feel like I'm ready for the test. I'll go over the material again before the test Tuesday but I'm pretty happy with where I stand now. And tonight I'll be heading back to the library for a study group for my Intro to Education midterm, which is either Tuesday or Thursday. I think it's Thursday, but I should check on that either way. I'm about to start cleaning my bathroom, and later I plan to look for scholarships online again for studying abroad. Yesterday I went to my friend Craig's birthday party. Both he and my other friend Chris live together in these little houses known as "the cottages" off of High Road here in Tallahasse. I've never been before and they're pretty nice, so it's something to look into for future housing plans. I've known both these guys for a while - Chris since the third grade, and Craig since sixth - and it was nice to see them again, even though the party was pretty big. Didn't drink a lot, didn't plan to, and me, Shan, and Jen really only stuck around for about an hour. I did talk to this other guy that I recognized from Thespians in high school for a little bit and that was cool. His name is either Austin or Justin... I think it might be Justin, but it was so loud in there and I'm not really sure. lol Anyway, it was pretty fun. I also found out that Chris is most likely going to be abroad in London at the same time I will be, only he'll be in the theatre program. That's a very convenient coincidence, don't you think? (Look, Tony, I spelled "convenient" right!) I also realized something today that may sound shocking to all of you, so prepare yourself: I enjoy studying*. * Studying things that I am interested in. Heh, I think this is probably true for most people, but the difference is that I am interested in most things. I like Biology a lot, and the genetics stuff that we're going over now is really fascinating to me so reading through it has been enjoyable. It made me start to wonder why I don't spend more time in the library in general, just reading up on things that interest me. So I set a goal to do just that. This way I can become knowledgeable about a variety of cool things which will, in the end, not only make me more intelligent but will also make me much happier because I will be spending time doing both interesting and productive things that I believe are positive, healthy, and entirely helpful in the long run. So how dorky do you think I am now? lol

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Friday, February 25, 2005

Oh, I think not, Mr. Gloop. I think not. On iTunes: "Float On" Modest Mouse Ever notice how things are funnier when you repeat them? Like instead of just saying, "Maybe I will" you say, preferrably in a silly and/or seductive voice, "Maybe I will, person'snamewhoIamtalkingtohere. Maybe I will." So the second draft of that short story is finished, all though there's still a lot of work to be done on it. I'm very pleased with the second half of it, and not so pleased with the first, but hopefully I'll be able to work all of that out in the next few weeks. I am very excited for Monday though when my darling peers workshop my story. Should be quite an experience. ^_~ Besides that, I'm also excited because I've thought of a few other story ideas that I seriously want to pursue. One of them I actually got from this cheap looking motel that's on Monroe Street called the Sunset Motel. That place is just ripe for a story. The other one would be a little more science fiction, which is something that I have not written a lot of (despite the fact that I like it very much). Already there are a few different influences that I'd like to work with, and though it's going to generally be a kind of light, amusing, action-packed tale (I think) there are definitely some darker character aspects that I want to incorporate as well. Things about human nature and stuff, which I think probably come across the best when doing sci-fi pieces because there's suddenly a much bigger picture. Anyway, I guess it would be a lot like Cowboy Bebop in that aspect - very funny, clever, and yet so incredibly sad in some parts. Hopefully it'll work out. I also want to push myself to write a few more 55 fictions. It's so much fun and it's the perfect way to make myself write concise, concrete plots in the shortest amount of space possible. Good practice. ^_^ The weather sucks. It's misty and it's cooling off again. I don't mind the cold weather, but I do mind being wet in cold weather, and I mind it when it's perfectly warm and sunny and then cue drastic change, it's miserable the next. My red blood cells cannot keep up with this! By the way, I like biology, but I hate it for being at 9:05 in the morning. Let's just say I have a lot of studying to do this weekend. Got a couple tests next week. Not cool (though I am thankful for the second chance with the biology tests. I should just go to class more.)

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Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Pika Pika Chuuuuuuu On iTunes: Notta I've got a lot of work ahead of me again, god damn it. It's going to be interesting to see how I juggle all of this. This week, however, is dedicated to my short story for class.. which is due Friday so that everybody can get a copy, even though it'll workshop next Monday. Let's hope I get inspired tonight and get it done.. it's not too long, and I've been having fun with some ideas. Maybe Sarah should just explain more of her life to me? (I <3 you ^_~) Anyway. Next week is also my next Biology test. Biology. You know, the class that I never go to. I have a lot of studying to do for that, so this weekend and most of next week will find me holed up in the library studying the human gene system. Oooh, interesting. Sometime in between all that, however, I need to get Chapter Two started for Paranoia. The fact that Leh/Patronus doesn't have internet connection right now kind of sucks, and it certainly doesn't help. So if you guys are involved in that and you're reading this, please be understanding if I don't churn that out tomorrow or something. I am working on it though, here and there, so hopefully this won't take too long. What else, what else. Oh, AIM sucks because it won't let me talk to Tony. Fuck you AIM. Fuck you. Okay, I have Italian homework to do (imperfetto, eww), so wish me luck and such. Actually, go wish Tori luck on her Chem test. She needs it more.

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Monday, February 21, 2005

Arby's = Awesome Curly Fries On iTunes: "10 Years After" Gundam ... Thanks for the comments on the last post. I had a weird night, after a very weird weekend, and I think what I realized in the end was that I'm not doing enough things for myself... even if it means taking twenty minutes out of the day to work in my scrapbook or crouchet Tony's belated scarf or write somebody a letter or something. I need better ways to unwind, heh. Anyway, as you can see, the layout has changed again. I'm not quite satisfied with it - the colors seem really off right now. I'll probably be messing around with it some more soon. GIANT HUGE THANKS goes to Badness for helping me find awesome Hero pictures. I lurve you! Speaking of! I also got a package today from everybody's favorite Swedish Empress and it had the coooolest sheep purse in it! I will take it everywhere. The sheep needs a name, though, so I'm taking suggestions. You know I love my nick-names. Mmm, ice coffee. I love Starbucks.

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Sunday, February 20, 2005

Is a dream a lie that don't come true or is it something worse? On iTunes: "The River" Bruce Springsteen Everybody called my grandmother Mord. We called her Grandma Mord, but everybody else called her Mord. For the longest time we just accepted it, never thought about why, about what it could possibly mean. My dad eventually told us. It was a nick-name that Uncle Carl (his brother) had come up with when he was mad at her for doing something or other. Grandma Mord was known to be rather cruel and cutting at times, and the whole family is full of sarcasm and dark humor, so this was entirely believable. To get back at her, for whatever reason, my uncle called her Mord, after the lands of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings, because she was that evil. I'm sure that my grandma got a kick out of that - that sort of thing seems to be right up her alley. The name stuck, obviously, but when I think of my Grandma Mord I don't think of Mordor. I don't really think of much at all. Usually, I just cry.

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