| Oh, woops | ||||
| 10:54pm 26/06/2009 | ||||
Please respond~ |
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| Posting again | ||||
| 10:35am 24/06/2009 | ||||
This song always reminds me of getting rear-ended, and my glasses popping off. But I like it anyway. |
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| (hello) |
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| Walking update | ||||||
| 03:56pm 23/06/2009 | ||||||
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| Psst | ||||
| 08:17pm 21/06/2009 | ||||
2) If applicable, respond to previous entry. EDIT: Thanks! :D Mmm-wah! |
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| (hello) |
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| Righto | ||||
| 12:25am 20/06/2009 | ||||
I think those of us who feel like it (which I hope is all of us, by which I mean the D&D group) should meet up next Wednesday, the 24th, and hang out in IRC and talk and work your characters up to level 5. That's right! I'm doing that now. Hooray! I'll also remind you at that time of the other various moneys and things you acquired recently so that we're all on the same page. THEN, I think we should meet up again sometime on Saturday afternoon, the 27th, early enough so none of us pass out. And we should play! What do you think of that? Also, I am planning on introducing a new player and character, namely my brother Michael, who will fill a much-needed hole in the party. I think this'll be fun; he's a pretty great roleplayer, and as Andy put it, adding a new character is a classic new-season gambit. But anyway, if this concerns anybody I definitely want to hear about it, so don't be afraid to alert me. PS. He is also a good artist. PPS. I really need to post about my real life again soon. PPPS. How does my plan sound? |
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| Check it out! | ||||
| 08:21am 14/06/2009 | ||||
http://runewoodabbey.com/ |
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happy/freaked| Today | ||||
| 08:45am 13/06/2009 | ||||
There were some messups and so I have to take one more four-week class this summer before I get my diploma, but the day of the cap and gown and processing is today. |
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| (hello) |
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| Rerereadjusting | ||||
| 10:35am 26/05/2009 | ||||
This is news. Up until now, I've been sort of dragging my feet about it. I like school, and I like literature classes, and I'm a little sad to be leaving it all behind. Part of me wishes the deadline to apply for grad school wasn't clear back in January. I'm not sure what kicked me over. There was a big choir trip to Seattle last week, which made me miss a bunch of classes and also a lot of Heath. I think this made me (a) simultaneously kind of like not going to class and (b) realize I really hate it that Heath and I are home at different times of day so much, and that our hanging out is interrupted by homework. So I'm starting to love the idea of having a job, a real job that ends when I go home, at least for the summer. Then Heath and I can both show up at about the same time, and I won't be bored out of my mind from being alone all day, and we can hang out. I hope I can find something. There was a pretty awesome opening at the local newspaper recently that I applied and felt qualified for, but someone else got to it first. Here's hoping I can find something else! My next target: a clerical/word-processing job at the university itself, which would be pretty funny, considering. Another big part of the reason I want to graduate is probably that I have three papers and three big concerts this week, plus a bunch of incidental writing and two more essays before the end, and a column or two I still want to squeeze in. For having come to it so late, I've got senioritis juuuust in time for the last two weeks to be painful. X) (In contrast to high school, when I'm pretty sure I never got senioritis.) Getting all my actual grad stuff together is proving annoying, too. I'm also considering staying in Divine next year, since apparently one doesn't actually have to be a student. I would love to, but it'll depend on What Else is going on. We'll see! |
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| (hello) |
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busy| Here is a random story | ||||
| 11:19am 05/05/2009 | ||||
Having stayed up until 2:30 procrastinating and then writing a homework assignment, we got here to school just in time for Heath's 8 o'clock class, and I thought, well, I've got some time to kill before my own 8:30 class. I'll go to the computer lab. After twenty minutes there I thought, hmm, I'm hungry! Good think I've got 40 more minutes until my 9 o'clock class! So I went and got a waffle, and what was I thinking? I was really late to Hamlet for no good reason. The time I did spend in there I spent struggling not to lose consciousness. Near the end I decided that, while I was walking across campus for my work shift, I would call up the local newspaper and ask them about the cool job opening they have that I might want to apply for. (I saw it on their website last night.) Then, the moment I walked out of the English building, I started hiccuping. Like, a lot. So, okay, no phone call until this stops. Surely it'll stop soon. Ten minutes later, on the other side of campus, I was still going strong. Finally, right before reaching the first building on my walkaround route, I gave a big yawn, and at the same time an enormous hiccup boomed out of my open mouth. If you've ever been around to hear my hiccups, you know that they're extremely loud. So of course some guy I didn't even know was standing right there, and I startled him. Fortunately I started laughing, so he smiled too, and it could have been worse, but geez. Hi, I'm an adult! I have control over my bodily functions! On the plus side, I was so mortified that I stopped hiccuping. Yay? Still haven't called the paper yet, though. I'm not sure I'm sane enough. |
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| Another long one | ||||
| 02:19pm 30/03/2009 | ||||
As planned, I read The Princess Bride on the drive there and back, and good heavens. It is so great. But it is also so very, very weird in a way that the movie is not. I want to find some good, in-depth analysis of what's going on with his (entirely fictitious, including the wife and kid) framework story, because it's so poignant and yet such a bizarre thing to do in terms of narrative, and I'm not sure I'm getting as much out of it as is there. It does, however, provide one of my favorite endings to any novel. Oh man I love it so much. I guess maybe I'd have to write an essay about this stuff to really figure it out, though I'm out of classes to use something like that for. Speaking of classes, I got straight As last term! Yay! The "poetic experiments" class ended up being mostly about printing and bookbinding, which was weird and disappointing, but there was some really good stuff, too. Among other experiments, I turned one of my favorite old poems into a pretty decent "hypertext poem", and became a big fan of a concrete thingy called "Pomander" (by Edwin Morgan), and also of the total insanity of the Italian Futurists. Whaaaaaat. Oh, and I wrote a "lyric essay" at the end of the term, which I might be talked into posting. It's an expansion of this thing. The literary criticism class was okay too, most of its greatness being that I got to write two totally awesome essays. She let us pick any text we wanted and apply one of the critical theories to it, so my first one was a feminist tearing-apart of "I Kissed a Girl" (a horrible song, and I can prove it!), and my second one was an analysis of neocolonialism in The Dark Knight. Yes, you read that right: my term paper was about Batman. I am very proud of this fact. The Modernist novel class was definitely my favorite. Did I even talk about any of this? I have no idea. Anyway, here are the novels we read, and some blurbs! ( By 'here' I mean here. ) I really like Modernist literature and its themes. I like how it's hard and sad and hopeful and screwed up and painfully insightful and silly and way more complicated than it needs to be. I wrote two final essays for this class; they were about commodification and social immobility. Fun stuff. So... That took longer to write than I thought it would. But THIS TERM! This term, I am so excited. My classes are a ten week course on Hamlet, a ten week course on the Divine Comedy, and a short story class where we spend most of our attention on how said stories were written. Plus, as usual, Bella Voce and Divine, and I'm planning to start writing for the Barometer again. This is my last few months of school, and they are going to be amazing. (The Dante guy has already become one of my favorite teachers. He is a white-haired Catholic deacon who loves this stuff so much that he can hardly believe he gets to teach it, and he grins a lot makes jokes constantly. (My favorite so far is when he informed us that he's a poet, and stated modestly that he has rejection letters from some very prestigious publishers. Also, "But I'm not a medieval Catholic. Things have...changed. And, you don't have to be Catholic to do well in this course. But it helps!") What I've read of the actual text so far has also already started blowing my mind. This is the only course I've ever taken notes on for on my own time just because I want to. And it only started today! As of this morning, I have also picked back up on my scripture-reading goal, which had lapsed for a while, and already I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. I also did some exercises, which I'm hoping to continue as well. Furthermore, I have consistently been taking all my pills, eating vegetables (still mostly potatoes), and flossing. Dang am I amazing! It's been long enough that I feel I can safely say the iron supplements have seriously and substantially improved my life. I even stood up for the entire rehearsal time in choir today. I'm proud of myself! And I'm writing this from work, which is great because I've never had a daytime lab shift before. There's still one long nighttime shift, though, so you #waiers can expect to see me around at least once a week. :) Yay. I guess that's all. In about 20 minutes Heath will pick me up and we'll head home. It's been so, so nice to be back from vacation and relaxing in my own beautiful apartment. There's always a lot to get done and even more to fret and angst about, but my life is good. I wouldn't trade it. |
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| Vrooooooooooom | ||||
| 11:08pm 21/03/2009 | ||||
My busy and wacky term is finally over! Once again I had 20 pages of essays instead of having any finals, but they're done now, and they turned out pretty good. Two were analyses of novels and Modernist themes; one was a "lyric" essay, basically a five-page prose poem; and one was a critical investigation of neocolonialism in The Dark Knight. I am still patting myself on the back for that one. The other thing that's up is that I finally got tired of being constantly too exhausted to do anything, so I went to the doctor and shilled out a bunch of money for various blood tests, and when they came back it turned out that I am extremely anemic. I don't remember what their units of measurement are, but my iron stores came up at "4", where the healthy range is anywhere from 13 clear up to 150. Yikes. So, I bought some hardcore iron supplements, and they're pretty funny. They're black triangles, so that every time I take one it's like, "excuse me while I swallow and digest this chunk of metal." I've also been taking folic acid, because although I am not trying to get pregnant just yet it's good to have high levels of that from conception on, and also vitamin D, because I went to a nutritionist and she says it is awesome. She furthermore explained to me how to take the few vegetables I like and turn them into a healthy diet, so that is all pretty awesome! I don't even have to bother with the nasty ones! (The best thing I have learned is that potatoes are already convenience food, since they can be cooked in the microwave if you stab them a lot first, and that they taste rad with black beans on them (and cheese). That is two vegetables, plus protein, friends! It's a lot of starch, but just replace all your white bread with wheat bread and you're good to go. I also learned that yogurt and trail mix are both super-duper healthy, so they are way better for carrying to school than muffins and cups-o-soup.) As a result of all this, I've been feeling pretty amazing this week. I half-joked at the time I started taking the iron that "now I'll know what it feels like to be a functioning human being," but I turned out to be pretty exactly on target. It is so strange to have this much calm, useful, non-manic energy. On the first day after getting the supplement I walked to the dollar store and bought a bunch of little containers and reorganized my bathroom and desk. I've been up and about and taking care of things all week, and it is amazing and bizarre. See, for years I have basically been doing nothing with my body. I've compensated by accomplishing a lot of entirely sedentary things, like novel-writing, but my home has always been a disaster, and I've always felt guilty about it. Cleaning is a thing that's important to me, but I've never been able to get my body to want to do it--although I was always aware that, if I really wanted to, I could just suck it up and do it. I figured that's what everybody else did. I figured nobody ever feels good, like in Joe vs. the Volcano. I figured I was just lazy, and halfway through my initial visit with the doctor, I randomly and embarrassingly got slightly teary-eyed, because I realized that that's why I've just lived with this for years instead of even checking into it. I thought it was my fault. So anyway. It has been a pretty amazing week in terms of health. I also had a dental appointment last Saturday, at which the dentist had cause to say "You diagnosed your own cavity." Ha ha go me. Also Heath and I have been flossing. Go us!! My next goal is to start doing mini-exercising, push-ups and sit-ups and things. Aw, I like my body. MEANWHILE, next week is spring break! We are leaving tomorrow to go to Los Angeles for most of it. It's going to be amazing, because most of us are carpooling in my parents' RV, and I like road-trips. I'm gonna bring The Princess Bride and Howl's Moving Castle and try to get them read aloud. Once down there, we will hang out with my oldest brother and his family, and for a few days my entire nuclear family will all be awesomely together: Mom and Dad; Aaron, April, Samuel, and Adam; Ben, Amanda, Holly, Asher, and one on the way; Michael; Jenny; Heath and me. One of those days will be spent at Disneyland, where I have been yearning to take Heath for years. Ahhhhhh. Life is pretty good. Lame/worrisome/painful things still happen, and I could probably write an equally long entry about those, but they're just not as big a deal, and that is nice. Although it would be funny to describe the fact that I was forced to hang out with 50 drunk people for four hours recently. Mostly strangers, even. Maybe when I get back. XP |
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healthy| Week Nine | ||||
| 01:17pm 04/03/2009 | ||||
In other news, this has been a weirdly disillusioning week, and I'm not getting very much done so far. There are good things around; I'm just not sure how I'm doing. I'm beginning to have suspicions. |
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| (hello) |
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| The long-lost RPG! | ||||
| 11:23pm 23/02/2009 | ||||
Luckily, the timing of our long pause shouldn't be too jarring to future play. I realized recently that, if my RPG was a fantasy trilogy, you would now be reaching the epilogue to the first novel. (As in the first such trilogy I ever read, this book ends with a wedding--but not yours.) To catch up to where we are now and to move on to what is happening next, please read the following lengthy but awesome post. ( It's interactive! ) |
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| I want to be like this | ||||
| 12:20am 17/02/2009 | ||||
walk the path that thou hast shown, Pause to help and lift another, finding strength beyond my own; Savior, may I learn to love thee-- Lord, I would follow thee. Who am I to judge another when I walk imperfectly? In the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can't see. Who am I to judge another-- Lord, I would follow thee. I would be my brother's keeper; I would learn the healer's art; To the wounded and the weary I would show I gentle heart. I would be my brother's keeper-- Lord, I would follow thee. Savior, may I love my brother as I know thou lovest me, Find in thee my strength, my beacon, for thy servant I would be. Savior, may I love my brother-- Lord, I would follow thee. - Susan Evans McCloud (punctuation mine, in case that matters) |
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| (hello) |
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| Guys, I'm sick | ||||
| 06:30am 09/02/2009 | ||||
Oww crap. What are these vessels of wrath where my muscles used to be. Up until now I have been pretty happy with this cold because it came after ICCA and my two big essays, on a weekend, and was only giving me a sore throat and fever, not a stuffy nose or a headache. Dang, I thought, this is lucky and I can accept it. Now that it is giving me everythingaches and shoving bricks up my sinuses, forget that. This is garbage and I'm tired and I need to start being productive again pretty soon. |
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| Meem | ||||
| 03:01pm 28/01/2009 | ||||
"The first seven people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations: - I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! - What I create will be just for you. - It'll be done this year. (Might be a bit.) - You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! - I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to repost!" Extra rule: Andy is specifically excluded. TAKE THAT, YOU...YOU BOOTH. Love, Rachel. If you have already posted it, you can and should opt in! If you haven't and don't plan to, you mostly shouldn't--but if you decide to get impudent and I immediately have a good idea regarding what to make you, I might start by making you an exception. Maybe. Speaking of making stuff, I have some comics done, but my computer doesn't talk to my scanner. D'oh! Stay tuned, I guess. Continuing the tour of old songs I used to be obsessed with and then forgot about, check this action out! |
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| Things to see | ||||
| 02:16pm 21/01/2009 | ||||
Heath and I still have a pumpkin outside our front door. It's not carved or anything, just a little round thing we put out there in October and then forgot about. We noticed it again in December, when it was starting to turn visibly moldy--I tried to lift it, but the handle/stem came off the moment I touched it, and when I poked it with my shoe it left little bubbles on the sidewalk. This grossed Heath out really bad, but I thought it was hilarious because I am the worst homemaker ever. We ended up just leaving it there. Now, however, it's grossness is starting to be truly unsettling; it's a lumpy greyish-green and it's starting to collapse in on itself. I guess it's time to do something about it, but I'm not sure what! Push it over into a trash bag, I guess. I hope the concrete isn't stained. Maybe that was more than you wanted to know? It's a nasty old pumpkin, Charlie Brown! In other news: HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT THIS SONG? Later there will be some drawings. |
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| (hello) |
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| Books books pictures | ||||
| 11:22am 16/01/2009 | ||||
And did I mention it's funny? ( My idea of funny. ) (Look, here's the whole text. Hooray for old books!) In related news, I super-want to reread The Lord of the Rings. With the way my tastes are going these days, I think I'm even going to love the "and then they walked past a bush, and then they had some lunch" sections. I mean this seriously. Also, geez, you guys. Drawing is really hard. I'm badly out of practice. (But I have one cartoon almost ready. Guess I should start another while I'm figuring out how to scan these.) |
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| (hello) |
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| Cartoons | ||||
| 03:36pm 13/01/2009 | ||||
But I'd like to see what it's like to just draw loose, random, educated silliness like Ms. Beaton does, so I think I'm gonna give it a try. That means comics! Here's where you come in: please give me concepts, people, or random other stuff you'd like to see turned into cartoons. They could be as funky and specific as the suggestions you gave me for the Iron Masa challenge ("a vampire stealth-attacking a werewolf," "a duck trying to ride a bycicle," and "a fairy using a (normal-sized?) cell phone" are good examples of how my friends are the coolest people ever), or they could be really general, like "Shakespeare" or "how your day is going" or "animals" or "me". The latter seem like they're probably easier, but who knows~ One possible source for things-I-know-about is the list I recently posted of stuff I read last term and over the summer. Also, I'm an English major, so if you wanna yank something out of the literary canon, that's fair enough. If I haven't read it, I'll either try it anyway or screw around with it. :) We'll see if I can do this without being completely Beaton-derivative, but her writing style is fun to badly imitate. X) Also, if I get enough exciting suggestions, I may or may not set up a special Iron Masa-style challenge for myself. Or maybe not; what with newspapers, school, and especially NaNoWriMo, I feel pretty confident these days in my ability to get stuff done when I need to, and might not feel the need to manufacture a schedule. So I guess we'll see. Please lend me your ideas! :) I guess I'd better fix the network connection to my scanner... |
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| English major | ||||
| 03:06pm 08/01/2009 | ||||
This is what Irene Redfield remembered. Holy moly. I wish I could do that. |
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| (hello) |
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masamage |
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Friends Info Calendar Masamasa |
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