Monday, January 3, 2005

Don't share your pitch woes with peoplewho don't get it. It's not very helpful for anyone.
WHY WE AREN'T HAVING CHRISTMAS TILL MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY

At Pratt Institute, if you board there and you know you will be having a room mate, you need to clear out your stuff so it's all on your side, so someone has room to move in. It doesn't even have to be clean. Just on one side.

If you don't in a week, you are fined $50 a day. After 14 days, your room and board is doubled.

If you live in New Hampshire, it is a long and expensive bus ride to NYC.

After we couldn't do Christmas on the 27th because of heavy snow in the Boston area, we set out to find a new date.

Well, guess what? Nothing during the primary and secondary school break would do, because my cousin, who goes to Pratt, and has known of this potential room mate, did not clean his room.

He doesn't even care about being there or not, but his mother would rather he be there and inconvenience everyone else.

In short, we missed Christmas because my cousin did not clean his room.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: CLEAN YOUR ROOM.
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One of those days ...
I really can't even point out why today was one of those days. It just was.

I think I started realizing it during band, when I got blamed for making the same mistake as everyone else with my part, but louder due to the fact that I am the only stupid woodwind playing with the tubas and other assorted low brass.

I get that I was probably the only person he could hear clearly enough to identify, but still ...

And then I was yelling and angry later on and there was a sectional before that ...

And God knows if I'll ever get around to my math homework ... because heaven knows that knowing the degree of a polynomial function is just that important ...

But of course, it is.
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Sunday, January 2, 2005

The most frustrating moment of my life thus far ...
... to think, in 16 years, nothing has distressed me so much.

And you know what? If not for my trip to Borders today, I might have forgotten to whine at those who swing by!

See, I haven't been to a bookstore in a month. The last time I was at a mall, my friends said I couldn't go in, as I had yet to acquire a dress.

So, I went today, and picked up some manga and some Diana Wynne Jones, because I am still a little obsessed, even after 3 years and quite a bit of Bradbury and Orson Scott Card.

And at the checkout, the lady there goes, "Are you looking forward to 'Howl's Moving Castle'?" So I told her, "Ho yeah!" and made a mental note to smile at her the next time I go there, as she is obviously a woman with excellent taste, to recognise Azumanga Daioh and Chrestomanci and automatically come up with Howl, which is what a few very dear friends and I would have done, had we been said cashier.

However, had it not been for this, I would have forgotten!

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE ENGLISH RELEASE DATE/A QUALITY SITE REGARDING THE FILM?

Because: Right after my last post, I was lurking at IMDb, and I discovered 3 very distressing things:

1) The English release date is unknown, but fans suspect November.

2) All the sites about it are in French, Italian, or Japanese, none of which I can read.

3) No one seems to want to call Howl by his name. Who is this Hauru character? I mean, I get it's not pronouncable in Japanese, but the Italians keep calling him Hauru too!

Another crucial question:

WHO THE HECK IS THE DARK-HAIRED GUY THEY SHOW IN SEVERAL PICS WITH SOPHIE?

Because here are two things I know: Howl would never wear green, and he doesn't have dark hair for much of the story ... though, I suppose that not many people much care that his suit color may have been changed.

WHAT IS THE PLOT TWIST MY FRIEND SAID SOME MAGAZINE HINTED AT?

I love Diana too much. My adoration of her goes beyond that for Miyazaki. If there are abundant discrepencies beyond Howl's suit color, I will blame him.

DOES ANYONE AGREE WITH ME THAT HOWL WAS A PERFECT ANIME CHARACTER IN THE BOOKS?

Think about his rep, his past, his attitude ... he was cut out for this.

WHY ISN'T CELTIC RUNE GOING AND SEARCHING THE WEB FOR THIS HERSELF?

It actually didn't occure to her until just now. But really, if anyone knows anthing ... let me know please?

AND TEA? YOU DON'T NEED TO LEAVE A SARCASTIC REMARK ABOUT THIS JUST BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN HEARING IT ALL WEEK.
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Thursday, December 30, 2004

Yes, we have no bananas ...
That is the song that has sold the most sheet music. How distressing is that?

Vacation is almost over! And this makes me quite sad.

All I've accomplished this vacation has been rereading a good bit of my Diana Wynne Jones collection. I finished Castle in the Air, then I realized that it'd been so long since I read Howl's Moving Castle, and it just started a chain of events that began there and hasn't really ended yet. It's current stage is The Dark Lord of Derkholm.

You know, I don't think I've ever read a book she wrote that I didn't like. It's like Bradbury, only more fun and less We're Going to Kill Ourselves.


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Wednesday, December 29, 2004

"Princes Bride" is the best western flick I've ever seen.
Okay, so they're gonna make a Hitchhiker's Guide movie.

Now, I'd be all for this, except that 'they' is Disney.

I may just have to erect a shrine to Ford as he was when I met him if he becomes a dummed up comic relief element.

Today went by so fast! I hate it when that happens on weekends and vacations!

You would not believe how slow the library was while I was there today. It was mildly disturbing.

"If WHR was a movie, would it be better than 'Princess Bride'?"

The answer, my friends, is still no. Despite the conflict it evoked in me, the answer would still have to be no. Because "Princess Bride" tops all movies in all categories. With the possible exception of "MPHG," since I'm not sure that has a genre.

And yes, I know that it's British humor, because I know someone will feel a need to act as the killjoy I usually am.

Being a killjoy rocks. All it takes is responding seriously to rhetoric and treating jokes as serious statements. It comes so naturally to some of us, people don't know I'm consciously killing their joy.

Then, they start accusing you of being a cynic and stop telling you jokes, and that sucks the fun out of your life, since they're sick of sucking the fun out of theirs.

Unless, of course, they're so twisted, they actually think the fact that you can kill a joke is funnier than the joke was. Then, everyone gets a kick out of it.
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Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Do not laugh at people who have accents.
Because really, it's not that funny for a person in her Massachusetts kitchen to drop an R or 3 in one sentence. There's no reason for 5 people to start laughing.

It's weird: I'm the only person I knew, outside my family, who ever dropped Rs until I was about 12 or so.

Funnier, I can mimic accents most of the time, but I can't mimic French accents, even though I probably know more French-speakers than anything else. I have mastered the New England 'eh,' but I just can't do the French 'eh.'

Obviously, I have a lot to do with my time ...

Today ... Tea and I cleaned our room! It really looks almost the same as before, but in actuality, there are 2 less trash bags of crap in there.

My brother was going to go to his friend's to spend the night, but he wanted to see National Treasure with us, so instead, his friend is staying the night here.

National Treasure ... it was decent, I thought. Indiana Jonesish. But I wish I could convince my parents that the Silence Dogood letters exist. They don't seem to want to believe me when I keep telling them they did ... they of all people should know that I'm a history buff!

Regarding Shrek 2, which I am currently watching a third time: Puss in Boots. I'm so sorry, that's the only thing that's funnier the 2nd and 3rd times. I mean, my God, he's Antonio Banderas hacking up a hairball!

But I really, really want some pie!
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Sunday, December 26, 2004

A Brief and Whiny Summary of My Vacation Thus Far
December 23: The last day of school. As is customary, no one did anything at all for 7 hours, then we all went home. Some of us, in anticipation of the band semi, were deprived of life giving cold medications, given enough caffeine to make this irrelevant, yet not make them feel any better, and dragged off to the mall to find a dress, because, quite obviously, without the aid of not one, but two friends, they could not possibly find something suitable.

December 24: As a result of the fact that the source the the caffeine was passed around, one of the parties involved in the shopping fun had a rather sore throat. However, they still had to help clean the house before church, and after, they had to sit through hours with Daddy's family, telling various realtions that, yes, I was enjoying my contacts, and no, I didn't have a hard time getting used to them. Every so often, they got to tell them that yes, they are still in band.

December 25: All I can say is, I dislike ham and I do not wish to eat it for the next month. Actually, I can say more. If you were my parent, and the two CDs you knew I wanted were "The Best of Queen" and Alison Krauss and Union Station's new CD, which one would you get me? Quite frankly, I can tell that Daddy is the one who bought the CDs, because that's the only way I got Queen over Alison, and probably how a CD labeled "Hoobastank" gets in, considering Mother can't pronounce it.

Today: I watched M*A*S*H. Right now, I'm supposed to be at the band semi. But we're getting snow, and lots of it. The third incoming storm of the day, in fact. So my parents don't want to have to drive me home at midnight in the snow, so I'm stuck here. ONe of my friends just called me from said party, and I'm just wickedly happy she's called to offer me a ride home now, when the party's halfway done and it would take me an hour to get there.

My friend from Minnesota's in for the next few days, apparently, but I haven't heard anything about it, really. The only girl who knew anything about this (since apparently, people only answer phones in Minnesota, they don't actually use them) hasn't said anything, and what I should have done was at five, called my friend to be all, hey, are you still going to the semi/have you heard about her coming out this week? but of course, I didn't, because I was mad about my parents not wanting to drive me down there in the first place.

Well, if the band makes an unprecedented move and has another semi, like they keep thinking they will but never do, I guess I'm all set.
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Wednesday, December 22, 2004

MARLEY AND MARLEY!
Muppet Christmas Carol is on Disney Channel. So I have to watch it. This is to ensure that when we watch it in history tomorrow, I will be able to whisper every line in my friend's ear just before the characters say it. I have a great talent for that sort of thing, but I haven't seen the movie in a year and need to brush up on it.

Now, Princess Bride? Monty Python? The Mask of Zorro? Sound of Music? Those I can practically cue. I did the whole of Princess Bride when my sister's friends saw it for their first times at her birthday party. I think that doing it that way gives them the whole experience. Because if you can't sit on the floor and spit back the whole movie with 5 other people who can do the same thing while stuffing their faces with chips, why watch it?

But anyway ...

I love the holiday season. It insites this urge in everyone to know to walk up to you with a bag of candy and hand you some. It's not like Halloween, since you don't have to work for it. As long as you've got friends, you've got candy!

We should institute another such day about once every 3 months. One for each soltice and equinox!

I'm not buying into the commercialism with this. It's just alarming to see how many people like you enough to part with Lindt for you.

It's really quite touching.
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Monday, December 20, 2004

Esta muy, muy snoogly.
Anyway, today, it snowed again!

It's like having a whole nother chance at Friday!

This time? I was only 5 minutes late to class, I did pretty well in band (sectionals, no less), and the snow is gonna last us a while!

Heheh, White Christmas!

Though that's not politically correct.

There's a Tshirt slogan, "I'd rather be historically accurate than politically correct." I like that one. I mean, it's ridiculous. Some people would rather deny the truth than risk offense? Why is it that some people don't want to admit to the way things are/were? I mean, say what you will, there are/were social institutions and scandals that have occured, and refusing to discuss them because some people find them distasteful is worse than anything, because when you have to be politically correct about something, it means that someone got hurt, or someone was treated wrongly. If you gloss it over, what kind of justice do they get?

A good Tshirt is also the one that says M*A*S*H 4077 and the one that says "I'll bite your knees off!"


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Friday, December 17, 2004

You know, today could have been a really good day ...
I got a decent amount of sleep for once, it was snowing beautifully when I went out to the bus at 7, and that's about where it stopped being really good.

The snow was all over the roads, and since it had just started, there was nothing anyone could do. So, the bus ride took forever because of the traffic that resulted from all the accidents and the slow driving that goes along with snow.

I was sorely disappointed when, arriving at school late and being the only person in my class to do so (and without my homework no less, because I didn't get to school early, and so never got it done), the snow was over. By 10:30, it would be all gone, except the nasty black ice.

Well, last night, I was wicked busy finishing off various essays and such, so I never did get around to working "Profanation" for band. Too bad for me, since I really sucked today as a result.

It was ridiculous! I could play the run just fine before rehearsal began, I could play it just fine when the director asked me to play it for him to make sure I was getting it, but as soon as I had to play it in context, I couldn't! I mean, sure, it was really exposed, and the girl I follow with the line is so much better, but it's even more exposed just playing it alone, and I could do that.

I just really, really choked ... and I've been kicking myself for it since.

Why am I still kicking myself? Because choking there got me so anxious, I choked again.

In English, my recitation to make sure I had my lines memorized for the dramatic presentation on Tuesday?

Right before it, I remembered how nicely I'd screwed it when asked to perform for others just a few hours before. Well, I did a nice breathing exercise to calm down, got up, said the first five lines, and then just stopped.

It was ridiculous! I could rattle the whole stupid thing off just moments before.

Ever the optimist, I find bright sides. My band issue perked up a friend who was feeling cruddy about herself. I stayed in character and came up with the next line after a more-than-dramatic pause, so I wasn't too penalized. I now have my other trouble spots in "Profanation" up to 175 bpm. My C#s are in tune.

And, most importantly, in my moment or 20 or failure, I did not rattle off the first Shakespeare that came to mind ... the only Shakespeare I know by heart no matter what.

Because, as impressive still remembering the ending speech of A Midsummer Night's Dream after 3 years may be for one who can only remember things put to music, I doubt that would have saved my grade.
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