Wednesday, December 15, 2004

LotR:RotK

I'm watching the special features discs of the extended edition as I type! I'm so excited! Cool new info on Tolkien and extended discussion of director's choices, etc. Watch it if you can (after you've checked out the other special features discs for the other movies--they're good background for this one). EDIT: I just fiished watching the special discs. They are quite informative and really emphasize just how impressive the effort to make these movies actually was. They're much better than the special features discs from TTT. Plus, David Wynham (sp?) and Viggo Mortensen talk on them about their experiences--and I always enjoy seeing them on screen! :D

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Tuesday, December 14, 2004

New Theme!

I hope you like the new BG. I'm continuing my X-mas theme, of course. Here are Kamui and Fuuma in their usual compromising position. I call this one "Wrapped in Plastic" as a hat's off to Twin Peaks and the Photoshop CS filter I used on this capture. I've been at my parent's house since Saturday (will be here until first week of January). I forgot how odd it is. Everyone went to bed at 10:30! O_o Well, at least I have time to update now. My every moment of day light has been spoken for. Hopefully, I won't be so in demand after the week comes to an end. I spent all day yesterday and today updating my old computer. She hasn't been updated for quite a while, I needed to add Photoshop CS and some cool new brushes and fonts, not to mention the update of Safari, iTunes, and iPhoto. I should be making WPs in no time, now though. I'm all set. Ja ne!

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Sunday, December 12, 2004

Tennessee Time

Sorry I didn't post yesterday or make it around to your sites. I actually thought I was going to be able to do so, but my mom dragged me off to do some Christmas shopping. I'm really very selfish--I got two outfits for myself and a new pair of high-heeled boots. Screw everyone else, yeah? It was really fun for me. Then I came home and watched Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban with my sister. Not everyone is a fan, but I love the books, especially Severus Snape, our erstwhile Potions Master. And Alan Rickman, too. Actually, my name is a Snape reference, for those of you who wondered. Lastly, I made a cheesecake--just waiting for it to cool so I can stick it in the fridge and watching Full Metal Alchemist :D I'll make the rounds when people begin updating today! 'Bye for now!

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Friday, December 10, 2004

Semester is officially over!

By this time tomorrow, I will be on Tennessee time! (Actually, it's the same time as NC time; I just couldn't resist the Pulp Fiction reference). I'm in a frenzy of cleaning at the moment (yes, I'm aware it's 2 AM and that I need to be on campus by 7:30 AM). I really need to clean the bathroom before I go to bed. I'm also taping everything on the DVR so it won't fill up while I'm away. It's the darnedest luck, too, because Name of the Rose is on. Man, I love that movie, even though it doesn't compare to Eco's novel.

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Thursday, December 9, 2004

Whew! I think I finally got around to everyone who updated today. Grades have been posted online. So far I've had two students in particular do the grade-grubbing thing. I'm sorry, but if a student got a "B+," it doesn't matter how close that person was to an "A-," that student still got a "B+." These scores are not completely arbitrary. What's more, these grades are not an identity, it's an evaluation of the work students submitted in my class, nothing more. Yikes! I'm sure I was like this once...patience, give me patience. My friends and I saw National Treasure today. It was ok--about what you'd expect. We exchanged gifts--I got a Barnes and Noble gift card--fun, fun! I bought a book by Storm Constantine, one of my faves. EDIT: Check this psychic web site out. Let me know if you can figure out how it does it! I'm stumped!

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Wednesday, December 8, 2004

I really AM Bakura's Denial (see below). I had all day to grade papers yesterday so that I could finish up final grades this morning. I've made two categories so far in the stack of papers: these introductions totally suck & these introductions have SOME redeeming value. In other words, I haven't gotten very far! Eeek! I got up at 4 AM so I could be on campus by 6 AM, and now I'm eating a piece of cheesecake for breakfast with a flimsy plastic spoon, chugging decaf coffee as if it actually had caffeine, and TOTALLY FREAKING OUT about how much grading I still need to do. Plus, I'm about to post absences and tardies for my students--my policy is rather strict--which I know will cause a stir. Everyone's fine with the rules until they apply to them. I know I'll receive a querzillion email excuses for why people were absent, etc. Hello, it's college--a.k.a. the real world--at some time you'll have to take responsibility for yourself. Anyway--I'm going to see a movie this afternoon with my friends (after I finish my grades). I'll check out everybody's site later tonight!

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Tuesday, December 7, 2004

New Theme

I've decided to change the theme to Kakyou. I've put up this wallpaper and another one of Fuuma and Kamui together to continue the X-fest-ivities. Check them out. I hope you like them. They are only as yaoi as X itself, which means a certain degree of intimacy and torture between main characters. Deal with it! :D Tomorrow evening sometime I will be cutting the deadbeat friends from my friends list. If you visit my site but haven't posted to it in the last week, either post a comment or give me a shout in the box to prevent any accidental cuttings. EDIT: Maybe I'm a meanie? I don't feel bad about this at all. Friends talk to one another and show an interest in each other's lives. If you don't talk to me or show an interest in my life--but I spend lots of time developing my end of the relationship--how can I call you a friend?

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Monday, December 6, 2004

   Sorry to disappoint!

Several of you seem likely to be disappointed when I convey the shocking news that I...changed my mind about the cookies. Instead, I bought doughnuts! BUT, not just any doughnuts, Krispy Kremes! If you aren't familiar with these yummy sweets, you need to find the nearest Krispy Kreme, and reach nirvana. The simple glazed and the chocolate covered, kreme-filled ones are my special faves. Luckily, as the home store is in Winston-Salem, you can find KK doughnuts in almost every grocery store in these parts. In other news, I'm not sure how student evals went. The students here can be extraordinarily fabulous, but they can also be the biggest bunch of two-faced liars you'd ever meet. It's anybody's guess. I did have one student sit down and give me the blow-by-blow of his paper. As if I weren't going to read it for myself. @_@ All I wanted was to pass out doughnuts and evals, collect papers and go home.

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Sorry I didn't post

Sorry I didn't update yesterday. I tried to make it around to most of your sites though. Not much has been going on here. I had students send me their drafts at the 11th hour of a paper they've workshopped two times already. It's due tomorrow, of course. I mean...? Anyhoo, tomorrow, I'm taking back the extra coffee I received on Thursday and buying some Xmas cookies for my students, as it's our last day together. I hope I can find some at the really great bakery on the bus route. However, I only remember bread and pastry being sold there, not X mas cookies. We'll see.

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Saturday, December 4, 2004

Seemed like a long day...

Today, we had the last "real" day of classes for the semester. Monday, my students hand in their last paper, thank Yami, and then it's their turn to evaluate my teaching. I'm something of the Dragon Lady to them, I imagine, so who knows how it will go? One student said I was his favorite teacher, which was nice, but then he went on to describe his teachers in detail--even so far as doing unflattering impressions of them. Now, I'm not sure it was a compliment! ;) Finally, discs 4 & 5 of .Hack//SIGN arrived. Now, all I need is disc 6 to complete my set. I'm still waiting on Cowboy Bebop's 6th disc. Argh! Why is it so popular?! It wasn't recently released or anything...I need to complete that set too before I leave for X-mas break. Several of you asked about what I teach, so I've replied to that question in the comments of the previous post. If you want to know more about me, you have to do the work! ;) I'm flattered, BTW, that some of you visit even when you don't update your own sites. Thanks! I'll probably post another couple of X wallpapers this weekend (I'm keeping a couple of future BGs in reserve at the moment).

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