Post the Thirty-Third: I Hate Going Out on Christmas Eve

Battle-plan for tomorrow:

-Go to Walmart and have photos developed
-Get pumpkin pie from Safeway or Pricemart
-Go home and curl up into a ball and cry softly
-Watch various Christmas movies while eating pizza, eggnog, and pfeffernüsse (tradition!)
-Wrap remaining presents
-Play WoW, read Haruhi novels and Persuasion
-Eventually sleep

Battle-plan for Christmas Day:
-Wake up and panic
-Inspect presents
-Devour stocking contents while reading or going on computer
-Make coffee for Mom
-Receive Jenn and Dixon (coming to our house for Christmas morning)
-Open presents
-Receive Kim (coming to family Christmas thing)
-Go to Grandma's
-cook, socialize, etc
-gift exchange
-eat
-die
-go home
-sleeeeeep

Post the Thirty-Second: Fa la la la laaaa

...La la la laaaaa

Yes, ladies (and gentlemen?), finals are over and winter break has begun! Huzzah and hoorah!

I did pretty well for myself this semester. Here are my final grades:

ARCH100 - Ancient Peoples and Places : A
HSCI120 - Introduction to Human Sexuality and Sexual Behaviour : A
GERM102 - Introductory German I : B+
HIST151 - Modern Middle East : B
PHYS190 - Introduction to Astronomy : B
GPA: 3.5

Yes. Good job Stefanie. :)

I've been busy since the beginning of break with various social thingies. Now that class is out, everyone wants to party before Christmas arrives which is in THREEEEE DAYS. OMG. lol

I'm mostly done my Christmas stuff. I bought presents for everyone and they're mostly wrapped. We're going shopping for stocking/gift exchange stuff tomorrow and then I shall be DONE, with nothing left to do but wait for the day.

So, yeah, I've been enjoying my free time... playing WoW a lot... OTL

Anyways, yeah, I know it's been awhile since I've written, but nothing's really happened other than I've written exams, I've gotten the marks back from those exams, I've gone to Christmas parties, and I've played WoW. xDD; That's, um, pretty much my life?

So, yes, merry Christmas, happy holidays, etc etc. I won't say happy new year because I'll be back before that... TELL YOU ALL ABOUT MY PRESENTS. :)

Post the Thirty-First: Finals Begin

Helloooo!

Well, it's been about 2 weeks since I've last written, and a lot of things have happened... mostly, a lot of deadlines have passed and I'm a lot more chilled out.

I finished my NaNoWriMo. I am so proud. I had to finish about 25k words in a week, not an easy feat. But I did it!! I haven't touched it since November 30th, I'll be honest. It's nice to take a break from it. I'll work on it more later. :P

I've also finished up classes as of today at approximately 3:20 (the time I finished my Archaeology test). I still have finals ahead of me, but I no longer have to go to SFU every day until January. Woohoo!!

Two of the most stressful things that accompanied school were the German oral test on Monday November 29th and the History essay that was due on Friday December 3rd. I'm happy to report that I did extremely well on the oral test with an astounding mark of 92%. I'd be happy with a 92% in any class, but in German on an oral test, where I honestly would have been pleased as punch with a 70%, it's sort of staggering. As far as the essay, obviously I don't know what I got on it yet -- I only handed it in on Friday. I completed it and formatted it properly and made what I thought was a decent argument and analysis. I guess the marks will have to tell. And, what I was most pleased with, was that I didn't need to pull an all-nighter to accomplish it. I worked on it during my 3-hour break on Wednesday and on my 2-hour break on Thursday and it was done. So... yeah, it took 5 hours to write, but I managed to use my time productively, something that I think all of us tend to struggle with. I think it bodes well for the rest of university that my first paper was completed without a mad rush of panic.

And, honestly, my relative success this semester so far in the midst of... well, November, bodes well. November was a very stressful, busy month for most, but it was especially stressful and busy month for me with NaNoWriMo. Now, I know that there are those who have more horrible course loads than me, I don't boast about that, but the fact that I was able to juggle 5 courses along with writing a novel along with all of the emotional stuff that happened in November makes me hopeful that the rest of university won't destroy me.

However, Fall Semester isn't over yet, much as I'd like it to be. There's still exams that stand in the way. I only have 3 exams (although I did have tests in the other classes, they're just not finals in the official sense): Astronomy, History, and Sexuality, in that chronological order.

I'm... somewhat worried for Astronomy. I mean, despite doing well on practice exams and thinking I understand the concepts well, I didn't do well on the midterm and I'm absolutely shitty at the math component -- which our prof hasn't decided on the importance of yet. We're getting together at Kayla's house tomorrow to study together. I made a list of things that I didn't do well on on the practice exam so I can direct my studying a bit, so I don't waste a lot of time studying things I already know. The exam for that is in approximately a week, on Sunday afternoon from 3:30-6:30.

I'm very worried for History, and rightly so. It's a very important course for me to do well in. Although the prof narrowed the scope of our studies to only 80 terms/personalities to study for identification questions (instead of 200+), I am still very worried because a lot of those terms and personalities I tend to confuse or outright forget... I am terrible with remembering names and terms normally. It doesn't help when they're Arabic names and terms that I don't remember. I honestly thought, until the ID brainstorming session, that the intifadah and the infitah were the same thing. (They mean 'rebellion' and 'opening the door to foreign investment' respectively... NOT A GOOD THING TO CONFUSE.) I have a feeling that, like the midterm, the final will be about 9 million times easier than I anticipate, but I would rather overprepare than underprepare. The exam is on Wednesday (15th) afternoon, from 12:30-3:30.

I'm a little worried for Sexuality, but less so than the others. A lot of the content honestly is either self-explanatory or ingrained in my memory from psychology. The other stuff... yeah, I need to study that. The entire thing is MC, too, which makes it a lot easier. The exam is on Wednesday evening, from 7-10.

And then, of course, we have Christmas and Winter Break. Oh, happy days! :)

I intend to fill my Winter Break entirely with entertainment that I have deprived myself of in the interest of studying and being focused on school. Here's a small sampling of what I intend to watch/read:

-finish watching Dexter (began season 4 today, 5 seasons to date)
-finish watching Community (halfway through 1st season, 2 seasons to date)
-rewatch/finish watching Dollhouse (2 seasons)
-read all of One Piece (~600 chapters)
-finish watching The Pacific (1 season)
-finally listen to the Good Omens audiobook Jenn got me last Christmas
-catch up on all my mangas (about 20 chapters altogether...)
-finish reading Looking for Alaska (~40 pages left, intend to finish it between History and Sexuality exam)
-begin reading all those lovely books I bought a long time ago

Yes. I will be quite busy indulging in entertainment media. :)

I just realized I haven't posted my schedule of classes for Spring 2011 Semester here! My my, I have been neglectful. Alright, well, here we are:

HIST104 - History of the Americas from Colonization to Independence
ENGL103W - Introduction to Drama
PHIL120W - Introduction to Moral Philosophy
HUM130 - Introduction to Religious Studies
GEOG241 - Social Geography

MONDAY
12:30-1:30 - HIST104 lecture
2:30-3:30 - ENGL103W lecture
3:30-4:30 - PHIL120W lecture
TUESDAY
9:30-10:30 - HIST104 tutorial
10:30-12:30 - HUM130 lecture
1:30-2:30 - PHIL120W tutorial
3:30-4:30 - HUM130 tutorial
WEDNESDAY
12:30-1:30 - HIST104 lecture
1:30-2:30 - ENGL103W tutorial
2:30-3:30 - ENGL103W lecture
3:30-4:30 - PHIL120W lecture
THURSDAY
10:30-12:30 - GEOG241 lecture
1:30-2:30 - GEOG241 tutorial
FRIDAY
no classes

So yeah, there you go. Originally I had fashioned it into a 3-day schedule, with Thursdays and Fridays off, but one of my classes got canceled so I took GEOG241 instead. :P Overall, though, it looks like a pretty damn fascinating schedule. I think (hope) I'll enjoy it a lot.

Anyways, it's nearly 3 AM here, and while I don't have class tomorrow, I'm supposed to be at Kayla's at 1:30 to study and I need to take a shower and such before I head over there, so going to sleep now would be a very good idea. Good night~

Post the Thirtieth: Snow

I'm writing this blog post from the 4th floor of the SFU library, on the side opposite the convo mall that overlooks the road. It's snowing right now. I know that, y'know, it's been snowing a lot in Vancouver recently, but today was my first time seeing it. I saw it today when I got off the SFU bus.

I always forget how much I love falling snow. I mean, I know it's just subzero precipitation, but it never fails to take my breath away. Maybe it's because it usually doesn't snow much here, or maybe it's just because of the way it makes everything seem a bit more magical. Along with snow, the city is blanketed with a muffled quiet.

Along with the natural beauty, I have to admit the side benefits of it are nice. This year is the first I've ever seen a largeish body of water frozen over thick. The pond in the AQ is frozen over and people are 'skating' on it, sliding over it, twirling, surreptitiously taking chairs from inside SFU and creating sort of sleds on the ice with them... Along with the beauty of snow, it tends to bring out a certain joy in most. Snow reminds us of elementary school snow days, throwing snow balls, making snow men, and stomping in pristine, untouched snow, just to hear the satisfying crunch.

True, it's cold outside. But, conversely, it feels so very warm and cozy inside. Maybe it's just because I'm wearing more layers than usual (yesterday, I wore underwear, 2 layers of socks, 3 layers of pants (tights, shorts, and jeans) and 3 layers of tops (tank top, cardigan, hoodie) as well as a knit hand, scarf, and coat when I was outside).

We should enjoy the snow while it lasts, because, according to the forecast, temperatures will rise again soon, and the usual Vancouver rain will return in full force.

Post the Twenty-Ninth: Simplicity

Hello~

I'm longing for some simplicity right now. It seems like there's so much going on, I just want to sit and relax...

I know it's bad, but when some of your friends are having difficulty with their own social life, with frenemies and drama and all that, it makes you appreciate just how easy and simple your own friendships are. It also makes you miss the ones you've been neglecting and call them up. (Sarah. <3)

Winter has struck and I am honestly caught between loving it and hating it. I'm usually a fan of winter, but it happened a bit suddenly this year... It must also be said that SFU is colder than the rest of the city, being on a mountain. The pond in the AQ was frozen over fairly thickly today. That is what really made the fact that it's winter cement in my brain. (That, and the fact that when I saw this, I was trying to bury my face into my scarf against the cold.)

NaNoWriMo is a struggle right now. I have like NO free time, and the free time I do have seems to slip away really quickly. I'm about 10k words behind now... Sigh. I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish the 50k goal by the end of the month. :| I'm really happy with how the story is going -- I actually skimmed through the whole thing yesterday and was incredibly pleased and surprised with it. It was a definite ego boost. I'm a funny person, it seems. xD;

School... school. I'm just waiting for term to end. TWO WEEKS! Unbelievable but true, and coming right on time. I have 6 more tests and 1 more essay to conquer and then I'm done for the term. I had a test today that I probably did not do well on, which kind of sucks because it's worth 35% of the term. But, y'know, I was averaging 91% before that, and there's still another test. I figure I can pull out a solid B of the class.

I've been thinking about love and wondering about various menfolk in my life... The problem with me is that I'm very suggestible; that is, if you say to me, "I think you two would make a good couple," I think about it a LOT, and more often than not end up having a bit of a crush. This also happens if I think that to myself obviously. But yeah. I don't know. I guess I just would like a boyfriend who I really like. That would be nice. Winter always makes me a bit lonely. I think it's because so many holidays happen, and I think of how I might spend them if I had a boyfriend. Also because I get very cold, and it'd be nice to hold hands with someone to warm them up instead of jamming them in your pockets.

I've been enjoying music a lot lately. A particular favourite is Fuck You by Cee Lo Green. It's such an upbeat song. I absolutely love the music video for it too. We need more 3-girl backup singers. :3 (I'll admit the line "I guess he's an X-Box and I'm more of an Atari" is also pretty win.)

I went to go see Harry Potter 7 on opening night. It was... well. It was concentrated win. As you guys know, I am a pretty big Potter nerd, maybe more than I ever really let on in public. So, y'know, being with a bunch of other people who were similar... yeah. It's really special. I guess it's a similar sort of feeling that you get at anime cons: that you're surrounded people who won't judge you, but will embrace you for things you love; that even though you've never talked to these people, they are similar to you. I'm not a spiritual person, but honestly (and you may laugh at this) when you realize that strangers aren't so different from you and that these are all people you could be friends with, it's... well, it's sort of a uniting thing.

Anyways, it's getting pretty late and oh myyy I have class in 9 hours, have to wake up in 7 hours, and have to leave the house in 8 hours... Good night.

Post the Twenty-Eighth: Hyperhyperhyperhyper

HELLO ALL

So I'm reaaaaally hyper and I don't know why. I think it's because I ate breakfast today. Like a proper breakfast. Well, not really a proper breakfast. I had Poptarts and Coke. YEAHHH NOT HEALTHY BUT SOOO DELICIOUS

I had a German test this morning. I was kind of panicky about it (well,as panicky as I ever can get about a subject I don't really care about) buuut I studied a lot (see: about an hour last night and half an hour today) and it paid off. It was pretty easy and I didn't even really neeeed to know holidays that much. So HURRAH HURRAH
Also CuteGermanBoy got a haircut and it's totally hot. :3 He looks like Mr Schu from Glee except blonder.

SOOOO YEP
I've got to kill about an hourrr until Susan gets outta class and I've got nothing at all do to. No homework. No studying. Well, I do kind of have an essay to do that's due on December 1st but I need to print out the documents so there's not much I can do right now. I COULD work on my NaNoWriMo which, despite my colossal victory of 4000 WOOOOOOOOOOOORDS written on Sunday, I wrote nothing yesterday and I was still behind ANYWAYS so now I'm like 5000 words behind again and it makes me sad. BUT I didn't bring my laptop and I didn't email it to myself because I am a dumb. I COUUUULD work on it because I do kind of remember precisely where I left off, but... this is not a conducive working environment. There are strangers who can see my computer (which, interestingly enough, I don't mind them watching VlogBrothers along with me, but the concept of them possibly reading any of my story TERRIFIES ME) and there is internet and there is NO POWER LIMIT.

I've been watching VlogBrothers which baaaaaasically is this awesome YouTube Vlog where these two brothers revoke all textual communication for a year and have to make a video every other day to communicate with each other or else FACE THEIR WRAAAAAAAAATH. Well, or else get a punishment. For example, waxing their beard. (DO NOT DO THIS. SERIOUS FACIAL DAMAGE MAY OCCUR.) They decided to go BEYOND the year and do a vlog entry every other day for the last 3 years. This means that I have like 600 videos to watch. Luckily they're only 4 minutes tops. I'm almost done May of the first year. I started onnnnn Saturday? Yeah. I haven't been doing much else. Right now I have half my screen on Blogger and half of it is YouTube. It's pretty hilarious, they're totally geeky and wonderful.

I'm feeling a lot better about life in general than I was on Friday night. I've gotten over the love thing which was my main cause of angst (or at least the most sharply felt at the time). I mean, I still like the guy (unfortunately; I talked to him and it was like YEP THERE IT IS) but I'm like meh I'll get over him and find a WONDERFUL STUNNING MAN WHO WILL LOVE HARRY POTTER AND WILL DANCE WITH ME AND WILL LIKE TO CUDDLE. (Yeeees those are 3 of my requirements. Don't hate.) It occurs to me that there are a shit-ton of reaaaaaally nerdy weird wonderful guys out there. I just need to meet one and make him fall in love with me.

...Holy shit they have a thing in Amsterdam which is like DDR but it's a chime on the ground. I WANT TO GO TO AMSTERDAM SPECIFICALLY TO DANCE ON THIS CHIME. It was on VlogBrothers and he did his happy dance on them.
Maaaaaaan I want to travel and find weird shit like that!

Anyways, I'm going to wander off and do something else. I have wasted a whole 10 MINUTES WRITING THIS BLOG POST. I wish it were longer. Oh well. ADIEU ADIEU

Post the Twenty-Seventh: My Head is Going to Explode

Hellooo.

I'm not in a very good mood right now so sorry if this blog entry is somewhat blehh.

WHY am I not in a very good mood? Because my life is not going the way I want it to currently...

1) Working on NaNoWriMo. I'm sure you guys know what that is. If not, Google it. So, yeah, I'm behind about 1 day, which isn't MUCH, I could catch up if I really worked hard, but I'm the sort of person who gets disheartened by small things and they loom over me and the logic goes 'why work on something when you're already behind', so I get further behind and arrrrgh. I've been behind for about a week... I worked really hard last Friday and Saturday to catch up, and then on Sunday I barely touched it due to PMS and also being wiped out from working hard on Saturday. So yeah, I'm still a day behind. My story is going to plan, everything's working out swimmingly, it's just a matter of ignoring the fact that I'm behind so that I can catch up.

2) Love life sucks. I've recently (see: this week and especially today) come to grips with the fact that the guy who I'm interested in is not and will likely never be mutually interested in me. Also he's kind of still in love with one of my best friends. SO. That's, um, wonderful. And once again I'm friendzoned. I am so tired of the friendzone, you have no idea. I know all the consolatory phrases and adages about true love being hard to find and better to have loved and blah blah blah, but it's really really really frustrating, and it makes me question what's so horrible about myself. And I KNOW I'm being stupid. I'm just saying, that's how I feel.

3) University is raping me. I know I often say that I don't find university that hard, but I admit it is a bit stressful. I feel like I should be a lot more concerned about it than I feel. I am stressed from it but I'm not constantly dwelling on it. School-related stress is like a natural part of life now. But still, it does compound the other stresses.

4) Constant bullshit and stress at home. My mom has been increasingly needlessly demanding and horrible. My stress levels are increasing with all the other stuff, and she's just adding onto it. I don't feel like I'm respected at all, that I'm only there to be her servant. I'd move out, but...

5) Poor. I have no money and I know if I got a job right now I'd spontaneously combust from stress. I don't even have money from student loans because my mom won't fill out the forms because she's too lazy. It's not because she's BUSY -- she spends her evening playing video games while I work on homework and NaNoWriMo and she yells at me for being lazy and not doing housework -- it's just because she's lazy. And she won't give me money. So I go to university and my stomach starts growling at noon and I'm not home 'til 8 PM and I can't do jack-shit about it because I have NO MONEY.

6) I KNOW THIS IS BULLSHIT, BUT. I feel like with my friend's relationships a lot of the time I'm the one who listens to complaints and gives advice and there's no reciprocity. In fact, the only one who I feel like I can complain a little bit to is Jessica (THANK YOU JESSICA, ILU <333). All my other friends... I could be sitting there, having a horrible day, and I don't feel like I can talk to them about it because they're caught up in their own thing.

7)I'm just tired. Tired of everything. Tired of school, tired of constantly working, tired of my relationships with others... tired of life. I have no energy. And I know others have it worse than me, but for me right now this is a lot and I'm having trouble handling it all.

And to top it all off, I have a really bad headache right now.

So, to stop myself from being emo, I'm going to take some painkillers and go to bed. Maybe things will look brighter in the morning. Or maybe, like every other day, I'll wake up and realize that nothing at all has changed and get slowly more and more depressed about it as the day goes on until you have THIS, me at midnight, just wanting to end it all. (I won't kill myself, don't worry. Even the thought of that exhausts me further.)

Night, y'all.

Post the Twenty-Sixth: Happiness

Helloooo!

So, I'm in a fairly good mood right now. I'm listening to some music ("Guys Like Potter" from A Very Potter Sequel), chilling out, trying to ignore the fact that tomorrow is Monday... lol

I've had a good weekend, basically. Lots of social interaction.

After I wrote last time, I did head over to meet the kinderninjas. We hung out at the mall/Tyler's until about 11 PM -- Olivera and I were the last to leave. The reason for the early (yes early) departure time was that they'd mostly gotten up at 6:30 to go to this Me to We Day thing, and the ones who hadn't had had a full day of school, and I had a midterm. So basically we were all pretty tired.

Saturday was a great day. I woke up really late, around 1:30, and noticed that I'd missed 3 calls from Kim. Quickly remembering I was supposed to hang out with her that afternoon, I called her, got dressed, and left. I was home and conscious for all of 30 minutes. I hung out with Kim for a bit and then Daniel texted Olivera and I and asked if we wanted to help watch his little sister before heading over to Kat's. Ollie was hanging out with Ernest and Aaron Lyons, so they joined the party too. We were at the park for a little bit. Daniel's little sister, Cyrena, is soooooo cute. She is just like 100% concentrated adorable. She's so energetic and happy. We headed over to Daniel's apartment and were there for like 15 minutes before his parents got home, and then we headed over to Olivera's. We called up Kat to hang out there too, and we hung out, watched Monty Python, and made perogies. We went home at around 12, getting a ride home from Kat's parents. It was a really fun day. Towards the end when it was Olivera, Daniel, Kat, and I left, we began taking pictures. Most of them were hilarious. I have 2 favourites in particular:





The second one in particular makes me laugh unfailingly every time: it's so amazingly demented. The first one I LOVE though. I made it my background. LOL. No joke. It makes me lol every time I minimize my windows, because I forget about it being there and then it's like AWWWW SAD DANIEL FACE. I told him I wanted to use it as my background, so I'm not being creepy. Right? :)

And then today I just kind of relaxed. I had a shitty sleep admittedly, but I had a chill day otherwise. I watched several movies. In fact, er, that's pretty much all I did today. ><; I watched the end of How to Tame Your Dragon, which I've seen before and still makes me happy, and then I watched Amelie, which I've never seen before. O. M. G. Sooooooooo good. Like... eaaaasily makes it into my favourite movie list. SO GOOD. Go watch it. Nao. I went out to the store and came back and watched My Sassy Girl, which was also pretty awesome. I loved the ending, I totally wasn't expecting it and I LOVED it. It was like Chekov's Gun mixed with Meant to Be.

Tomorrow... urghhhh. Mondaaaay. Oh well. Monday's are easy. For now I'll just keep listening to songs I love.

Right now I'm listening to Early Christmas Present by Kate Nash. Have I ever mentioned here how much I love Kate Nash? Seriously. Like... so good. Especially this song, for some reason. I'll write out the lyrics.

How could you let her touch you in a place you didn't want touched?
How could you let her get so close to you that could kiss your neck
And kiss it gently and kiss it gently and kiss it gently?

How could you take her number from her when you met her in that bar?
How could you offer her a drink and in the front seat of your car
And kiss her gently and kiss her gently and kiss her hard?

How could you lie to me right to my face?
How could your best friend's ex-girlfriend's younger sister's mate
Know before I did, before I did, before I did?

How could you string me on for so long, for just over 11 months?
How could I be so stupid and so blind? You know, I think I had a hunch
About this anyway, about this whole thing, about this girl.

I thought that it was just a phase, you were so distant and so cold
I thought that it was just your age and the fear of growing old
You acted different, you were so different, you were impatient

And you lied to me right to my face
And your best friend's ex-girlfriend's younger sister's mate
Know before I did, before I did, before I did.

'Cause if you run into the eye of the storm, take it round the back
You better hit the floor 'cause screaming,
"No, I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it anymore,"
'Til your eyes and your mouth is sore
Doesn't help anyone, doesn't do any good
But you'd do something else if you only could

And I wish I could grow up, wish I could be well behaved
But every time I look him in the eye, I send him to the grave
And that pretty, pretty girl with her nice sweet lips
With your eyes on her chest and your hands on her hips

This itch, this burn, this pain, this strain
Dealing turned out that we don't need it to help it go away
So that's what leaving me the gift you gave him, no

I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it anymore
I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it anymore
I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it anymore
I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it anymore

...Don't know why, but I love that song. :D

Anyways, it's getting late, so I'll be off to bed then. Goodnight!

Post the Twenty-Fifth: Midterms Blehh

So I am ALMOST done midterms fortnight. Yes, not a week, a fortnight, AKA 2 weeks.

First I had Archaeology 'test'. It was practically a midterm, as it was worth 25% of our grade; there are 4 of these 'tests' throughout the term and no midterm or final. So, whatever. That was last Monday. It was 60 multiple choice and that's it. I did pretty well, got 90%.

Then I had a German test last Tuesday. It was a test, not a midterm, but, y'know, still a pretty big deal. There are no midterms in this class: there's 6 unit tests and usually a pop quiz every week, as well as homework and participation. ANYWAYS, I got 88% on it. It was a standard language test: listening section, writing section, comprehension section.

Then I had my Sexuality midterm last Wednesday. There are 2 midterms for the record. I got 87% on that. It was 49 multiple choice and 1 short paragraph.

Then fast forward a week and a half to today, when I had my History midterm. I FREAKED THE FUCK OUT over studying for this one. As History's my major, it's kiiiiiinda important to do well. Anyways, I studied a LOT and it turned out to be pretty much useless as everything on the exam was from lectures, NOT the textbook. Don't know the mark, as, like I said, I just did it. It was 3 short paragraphs and 1 essay. I finished literally 1 minute before the end of the exam though.

And I have just 1 midterm left on Tuesday, Astronomy. I'm not entirely sure of the format yet. I do know that I need to study a bit.

So, I'll just list off some things that I've noticed lately.

1) Having a cold during an exam sucks. Just saying. Your brain is foggy and your nose is stuffed so you have to breathe through your mouth and then your lips get dry but you can't get your water because it's in your bag and you're in the middle of an exam. Also, coughing.

2) Studying in the library makes you feel like you can't breathe for fear of being too loud, never mind coughing.

3) PDA is not cool. PDA on buses is even less cool. PDA on buses RIGHT NEXT TO YOU is extremely uncool. PDA on buses right next to you where they bump into you while making out is horrible. PDA on buses right next to you where they bump into you while making out for 15 minutes is HELL.

4) Rape trails turn into happy strolls in the daylight.

5) If you think your computer is growling at you, it's likely just your cellphone vibrating.

6) Funny blogs should not be read in a public place where you're not allowed to be loud (ie: library).

7) If you really want to study, you should not bring your laptop to the library with you.

8) Playing soundtrack music on your iPod makes EVERYTHING seem different. Battle music makes that guy running look like he's a warrior.

9) Texting is highly addicting.

10) I have a penchant for chubby Asian guys. I get along with them really well 9/10 times. Don't know why.

11) Sighing with phlegm in your throat is painful.

12) Silencing your cellphone during lectures is not always necessary, at least at SFU, because most buildings have absolutely terrible reception. It is not uncommon to get about 5 text messages in a row upon leaving a lecture hall.

Aaaaaand let's leave it there because I'm running out of things to say.

I'm heading over to Tyler's in a bit to hang out with the kinderninjas. I texted Tyler saying that I missed him and we should hang out, and he's like "Lol okay. Friday?" So yeah. They had this Me to We Day thing to go to, so they're heading back now. I just got a text saying they're at Commercial Station... Sooo, probably about another 45 minutes or so until they actually get to Tyler's. I don't want to head over there until they're there. ><; Awkward much.

So, in the mean time, I'm going to do all the things that I denied myself doing while studying... namely, I'm going to read manga. Adieu!

Post the Twenty-Fourth: I Am a Copycat

Because my good friend Sarah did it, I'm doing the same. So there.

Week 1: History Midterm
Week 2: Astronomy Midterm
Week 3: Archaeology Test, German Test
Week 4: NaNoWriMo, otherwise nothing!
Week 5: NaNoWriMo, Sexuality Midterm
Week 6: NaNoWriMo, German Test
Week 7: NaNoWriMo, Archaeology Test
Week 8: NaNoWriMo, History essay due, German Test
Week 9: Archaeology Test, Physics Final
Week 10: History Final, Sexuality Final (same day, eep)

Put like that... well that just stresses me out more. ><

So, yes, 10 more weeks left until the end of my first semester of university. Once the first semester is over and I've sat finals and whatnot I'll feel like a real university student. Hopefully. The only thing that's made me feel more university-ish is the fact that today I thought, "I should go study in the library."

I've already started looking at courses and such for next term, and every new retooling of my schedule slowly gets more and more suicidal in nature. I'm definitely taking 2 history courses next term, one about the Americas and one about Africa. I'm probably taking German as well. I'd like to take an English/World Lit class, I miss my literature. For the other class... that's up in the air. I've considered Japanese, Earth Science (dinosaurs), Linguistics, Anthropology, Philosophy, Music, Chemistry, Humanities, and PoliSci. So. Yeah. I don't know. I'll probably end up taking something that a friend is taking, just so I'll have ONE course with a friend in it at the very least.

I am participating in NaNoWriMo again this year; this is my third year participating. I'm pleased to say that unlike my first year, I have a plot, and unlike my second year, I have a SOLID plot. :) I hope that this year will go well. The only part of my story that I'm having difficulty with is making an identity for my female main character. She's rather boring right now. I think I shall have to make some preliminary drabbles to get a sense of who she is. The male main character is quite well fleshed-out, thankfully.

So, as today is Thanksgiving in Canada, I'll make a list of the things I'm thankful for.

1) My friends. Seriously the best people in the world.
2) My family. Also the best people in the world. 1 and 2 are basically the same. lol
3) My bed. I love my bed.
4) SFU. The fact that I got into university is pretty freaking sweet on a global scale. And I'm preforming fairly well so far.
5) My laptop, Becky. Ohh, how would I live without thee?

Yeah. Those are the main 5 things I love.

Post the Twenty-Third: REVIVAL

IT'S BAAAAAAAAAACK

I am sooooo sorry for abandoning this blog. D: Life happened. And by 'life', I basically mean 'a barrage of anime con, wedding, and university'.

But let's get back into things.

So, I just finished my third official week of being a SFU student.

First, some things about SFU/university life:
1. I am addicted to the freedom. I mean, yes, there are scheduled classes, but it's like... you are in charge of your own destiny. I LOVE IT. Without the ties of consistent scheduling, each day is another practice in thinking for yourself. I mean, yeah, it kind of sucks not having the usual lunch break from 11:30-12:15 precisely every day, but at the same time it's like... yeah. Liberating. If I want to have lunch by myself in a random hallway at 2 PM, I'm allowed.

2. I'm hanging out with a lot of the same people, notably people from my high school. Especially Susan. Susan and I have grown about 20x closer since the anime con (when we were together for basically an entire weekend) and since the start of university.

3. You are able to walk ANYWHERE on SFU campus without being caught in the rain for more than about 10 seconds. Amazing, no? Good planning, because, um, yeah. Today for example, we were INSIDE the cloud. Yaaaay for being on a mountain.

4. Music plays in the Concourse Mall (AKA main outside area). It's pretty cool. Although kind of repetitive. A whooole lot of Michael Jackson remixes. Or maybe that's just when I'm there.

So I'll talk about my classes for a bit. I'm taking 5 of them and for the most part am enjoying them highly.

GERM102 - Introductory German I
I am actually loving this class. I've never taken German before and had no friends in the class so it was really intimidating, but I'd say it's my most fun class. It's a small class of about 30 people and there is a LOT of talking, so you're kind of forced to get to know the people around you. German is at a good level of difficulty for me, too: it's not so hard that I get frustrated with it, but it's not so easy that it's boring. It's challenging. I like languages, they're like huge elaborate puzzles. The prof is pretty cool. She's really enthusiastic and funny and tells lots of stories. Plus there's a few cute guys. Haven't made any real friends yet, mostly seats shift around class to class so you talk to new people each time.

PHYS190 - Introduction to Astronomy
This is also a good class. Kayla and Susan are in it with me, so there's someone to talk to all the time. Although sometimes when I'm in a bad mood it can be annoying. Anywaaaays... The content's pretty easy so far and it's somewhat interesting. It's about as interesting as science can get for me. -_-; The prof is enthusiastic and dorky. He reminds me of Mr Price, except a lot happier overall. One of my beefs with this class is that there's a few know-it-alls who kind of hold up the class. Also another beef, the prof mentions something and then says, "But we'll talk more about that later," A LOT. Like... talk about it now damnit, while I still kind of understand!!

HIST152 - Modern Middle Eastern History
This class is the most interesting content-wise. It starts from the formation of the Ottoman Empire up until current day. It's really interesting to me because I don't know much about Middle Eastern history, so it's all new to me. Well, so far anyways. Once we pass WWI then I'll know a bit more. Right now we're at about 1880. The prof is... interesting, don't really know what to make of him. I don't particularly like or dislike him. He's a good lecturer and that's all the interaction I have with him. :/ I like my TA, she's really nice. My tutorial is a little bit, um, dead. People don't talk much. No friends made yet. Although there is a guy from my German class in here, I found out on Thursday. And he's cute.

HSCI120 - Introduction to Human Sexuality and Sexual Behaviour
Now that the excitement of OMG I'M TAKING A SEX CLASS HOW REBEL has died down a bit, this class is still interesting but not too scandalous. Kayla's in it with me which can make for some interesting reactions. The prof is pretty cool, she's really relaxed and makes a lot of jokes. The class has a good atmosphere of having fun but also being able to be serious when necessary.

ARCH100 - Ancient Peoples and Places
This class is kind of boring. Yvette and Brianna are in it with me buuut it's still pretty dull. It goes pretty fast and so far it seems to be a lot of talking about the different kinds of blades used by various groups. I mean, there are interesting aspects to it like talking about whether the traditional theory of native Americans coming from Asia via the gap in the glaciers in 12000 BP is true, or whether there was an earlier migration via the North American coastline which wasn't covered in glaciers around 16000 BP. But, y'know, overall. Yawn. Also the prof and TAs have a habit of zooming through the slides and ending class like an hour early because they went too fast, leaving me pissed off and my schedule messed up. I haven't really gotten an impression of the prof/TAs yet because they pretty much just read from the slides. No personality.

So... Yeah. That's university.

My class schedule is pretty sweet and allows me to sleep in most days. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to get up at 8:30, but other than that I'm good to go.

Speaking of which, as it's Monday night (Tuesday morning now technically), I should get going to sleep if I want to be awake for my classes tomorrow. Night!

Post the Twenty-Second: Movie Night III

Today was the second movie night -- no, wait, third -- of the summer. It was lots of fun. We were initially going to do an apocalypse theme, buuut for some reason the DVDs didn't burn properly, so we just walked over to D-Video and rented a couple we wanted to watch instead. We were going to rent the same movies but we're like "Ehhh fuck it."

First we watched A Muppets' Christmas Carol (chosen by Kieran). It was lots of fun. Now before you go judging us, we had Disney night last week and it was a blast. We're all secretly 5 years old. Plus there was lots of jokes and laughter about WOAHHHH ACID TRIP.

Then we watched Persepolis (also chosen by Kieran). I had never heard of it before but they assured me it was good. It's a French animated movie about an Iranian girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution. It's quite good and surprisingly hilarious.

Then we watched Dragonball Evolution (chosen by Daniel mostly, although it was a group consensus). YES. YES WE DID. xD We picked it out for laughs. It was so amazing...ly bad. It was just... wow. Amazing. Words cannot describe how kitschy it was. Lots of laughter. Susan kept pointing out plot holes but we basically said SHUT UP, JUST ROLL WITH IT.

Finally we watched Shaun of the Dead (my choice, and originally part of the apocalypse theme). It was great as always, ended the night on a good note. Noticed a couple of things I hadn't noticed before that people pointed out. I always like that about watching movies with a bunch of people, you see it through multiple pairs of eyes.

Anyways, they just went home about 20 minutes ago. My head kind of hurts, I'm pretty tired, but I'm happy. It was a gooood night.

So, I realize I missed yesterday's thingy. I'm supposed to post a Youtube video. So, I shall.



Cutest video ever? Perhaps.

And for today's, I'm supposed to do whatever I fancy. So, I shall talk about a comic I like!

Blankets by Craig Thompson is SO. FUCKING. GOOD. It's like 600 pages and I read it in 1 day. In like 3 hours. It's so good. It's about this teenager who is very religious and is a bit of a social misfit, and he meets this girl and falls madly in love with her. The story is about him trying to balance his religious conviction with his growing view of the world and his intense love for this girl. It shows the evolution of his character. It's REALLY good, really funny and touching and also extremely fascinating. I'd highly, HIGHLY recommend it.

Post the Twenty-First: Karaoke Machine

Soooo today was fun.

Well. It started out not fun. I only slept 3 1/2 hours last night due to insomnia and having to get up early. I met up with friends down at the station at 10:20 (well, we were supposed to meet at 10:20, we ended up actually leaving the station at like 10:50, and I got to the station at 10:05 because I didn't want to be late sooooo) and went and watched Inception.

I still don't know what to think of that movie. I don't think I liked it very much. It was like... Okay. Here's the thing. I like plot. I HATE the 'it was all a dream' deus ex machina because it is SUCH A FUCKING COP-OUT and essentially allows you to do whatever the fuck you want without any consequences. And, y'know, that was essentially the plot. I did like the very end. I enjoyed the last 20 minutes or so and the last little bit I was like OHHHH THAT'S GOOD.

After that we returned to our friend's house and played Rock Band and ate supper and cake. GTs, GTs. Then we went to karaoke. I didn't go quite as insane this time, mainly because I'm not really that comfortable with half of the people there (they were acquaintances, not close friends) and thus didn't feel as comfortable screaming my face off, as well as the lack of energy (see: 3 1/2 hours of sleep). We did a very good job slaughtering My Heart Will Go On though. There were 9 of us. Apparantly we were the loudest BY FAR. xDD After that we went and hung out by the elementary school for a bit. We grabbed some supper at Safeway and then headed home.

When I got home I managed to download a working copy of the last Scott Pilgrim book. I enjoyed it, I thought it ended well. I am pleased.

Also all the downloaded movies for Saturday worked out fine. I am having second thoughts about watching 28 Days Later however. ;-;

So, yes, good day.

Now for today's daily post: a website. Errrm. http://www.harkavagrant.com/ Hark! a Vagrant is a history webcomic. Do I love it? YOU BET YOUR SWEET ASS I DO.

Post the Twentieth: Boooored

I hate summer for a number of reasons.

1) Sheer freaking boredom. The days are longer and there's less to fill them with.
2) Nagging to spend time productively. Get a job, do chores, etc. Fuck. That.
3) Heat. Fffffuuuuuuuu
4) Sleep schedule gets all fucked up.
5) Less things to occupy mind = intensification of boredom. Usually when I'm bored I'll think about stuff: school, friends, what's going to happen tomorrow, BUT THERE'S NOTHING TO FUCKING THINK ABOUT.
6) Laziness from heat.
7) Everyone either working, on vacation, or busy with other shit.
8) I am a nerd and look forward to the start of school so the summer gets draaaagged oooout.
9) Usually the impending doom of going to California. Doesn't look like it this year, yesss.
10) Early sunrises make me feel like shit when I'm just falling asleep when the sun's rising.

So yeah. I hate summer.

I'm filling up the vacuum left in my life by school letting out chiefly with entertainment. Namely watching anime, movies, musicals, playing games, reading books, comics, manga, etc.

Recently I've been rewatching ToraDora which is an anime that everyone either loves or hates. I finally decided to watch it like half a year ago and LOOOVED it, and am rewatching it now because it's a pretty good romance series and I'm feeling sort of melancholy. It's kind of horribly easy to apply to my life. My guy is weirdly like Ryuuji, I never noticed, mainly because the last time I watched it I hadn't quite fallen for my guy yet. But I'm not Taiga. If anything I'm like Minorin, WHO HE DID LIKE AND WHO DID LIKE HIM but they didn't get together because he stopped liking her and fell in love with Taiga instead. So. Q_Q But it is a really good series and makes my heart fill up with d'awww. Plus rewatching is always fun because you seeeee the little hints and stuff you missed the first time because you weren't expecting them. Like, noticing the signs of who really likes who. I wonder if life is like that. Sssssiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhh.

My horoscope today said, "You may want to run away from it but you're too invested. You'll be happy about it again soon." Oh, 24 horoscope column. You know me too well.

I want to start schoooooooool. I'm bored. Bored bored bored bored bored. And my classes look like fuuuuuuun. Also I want the teacher for HSCI120 to be announced godfuckingdamnit, along with the books they're assigning.

...Holy shit I just checked, it's up.

AHHHHHHH CRAP, SHE ASSIGNED THAT STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE TEXTBOOK. GRRRRRRAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH. I was hoping she'd assign something I could get for less... the cheapest I can get it is like $102. Why does it have to be the CANADIAN edition?! Stupid bitch. Let's see how much it costs directly from SFU... $135?! Bullshit!! Oh well. Guess I'm ordering it online.

USE CAMPUSBOOKS.COM.

Seriously, it saves you a buttload of money. Let's compare, shall we?

Textbook total cost from SFU Bookstore: $758.50
Textbook total cost from campusbooks.com: $241.75

Now. I may not be a mathemetician but that's, what, a $500 difference?! Do it, guys. That's $500. $500!! And you might even save more -- the HSCI120 book is still $103 and the German textbook is around $65 (instead of $165, BUT STILL). The rest of my books cost like around $20 each -- AKA A SANE PRICE FOR A GODDAMN BOOK. Most of the books are used, but... IDK about you, but seriously, for $500 I can deal with some highlighting.

I'm not in a good mood tonight for some reason. You've probably noticed.

Well, tomorrow and Saturday should be fun.

Tomorrow is a friend's birthday party. We're going out to see Invictus, then come back to her place and play Rock Band for a bit, then go out to karaoke. I, um, motherfucking love karaoke and yet fear it. For when I do karaoke, ALL MY INHIBITIONS ARE UNLOCKED. It's like... damn. I get really hyper and say whatever somes to mind and... yes. It's bad. It's so bad.

And on Saturday I'm hosting another movie night. This week's theme is apocalypse movies. We're watching Shaun of the Dead, Mad Max, 2012, and 28 Days Later. Should be goooood.

Anyways, I missed yesterday's post, so. A hobby. Um. I like to waste my time by watching TV shows.

And a recipe... cereal. Cereal + milk = yum.

Night.

Post the Nineteenth: Handywoman

Hello aaall~

Meh, today was a mostly boring day.

We went out to dinner with my sister and her fiancee to talk about her upcoming wedding. My sister and I pretty much just chatted the entire time while Dixon (her fiancee) and Mom talked about the menu. I borrowed her DSi and her Pokemon games in an attempt to buff up my Pokedex on my HeartGold game.

I built the Ikea furniture I got yesterday today. The chair was stupidly easy to make except for the fact that it was missing 1 part. It's not that vital, except whenever I lift up the chair one of the wheels falls off. But my old chair was like that. It's also kind of short for my desk... but I guess I'll get used to it? The bookshelf was a lot more difficult to build and I messed up a couple of times, but it also turned out pretty nicely.

I'm so predictable. I tell myself I'm going to get over someone and then I talk to him or hang out with him for a few hours and I'm completely smitten again. Damn it. This friendzone thing kind of sucks but kind of rocks. It's awesome because we can talk and hang out a lot but it sucks because he doesn't feel the same way I do. ): But like... I delude myself into thinking that over the course of our friendship at SOME point he may consider me in a romantic sense... and at that time I'll strike. lol

So, for today's thingy, I have to post a talent of mine. A talent of mine... Hm... Well, I like to think I'm good at writing. I don't know. People tell me I'm good at writing too. I don't really believe it though for some reason. I thought really hard about what I'm good at and I don't know. I'm not being facetious or fishing for compliments or anything, I just really don't know. I tend to focus on the negative, so like if I'm thinking, "Am I good at writing?" I'll think of the really crappy self-insert stuff I've written rather than the stuff I'm actually proud of. If I'm thinking, "Am I funny?" I'll think of the times I make jokes and everyone ignores me rather than the times I make a joke and make people roar with laughter.

Oh. I'm good at deduction and logic games. There. My talent is... applied logic?

Post the Eighteenth: Movie Night

Sooo I realize that I missed yesterday's post, but there's a reason for that... the reason being that I had just under a dozen people over yesterday for about 9 hours.

I hosted a Disney movie night at my place. It went a LOT better than the previous week's attempt at a movie night. Lots of friends came over and it was a blast. We watched The Rescuers, A Goofy Movie, Up, and Aladdin. Good times. We set out a ton of food for them and they ate nearly all of it. I was a little stunned. I'm not used to feeding guys. They aren't as shy as girls about eating. lol It was about half-and-half, with more guys for most of it. Daniel and Tyler arrived early at around 1:45, and Kat, Zach, Yvette, and Vinny left at about 11:20. So, yeah, just over 9 hours. And then I had to clean up. D:

Anyways, life rolls on.

I've been doing chiefly 2 things with my free time today: listening to songs from A Very Potter Musical and reading Scott Pilgrim.

I keep listening to Harry (the song) from AVPM. It's Ginny singing about how she loves Harry and he doesn't notice her. I relate, Ginny, I relate... lol

Scott Pilgrim is this comic series I've been vaguely aware of for a few years but never read. I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of it and figured I should finally read it. IT'S GOOD. It's very funny and very entertaining. I'm excited for the movie now, I hear the director of Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz is directing it, so you KNOW it'll be good.

Other than that, today we went to Ikea. We went to get vases and fake orchids for the centerpieces for my sister's wedding, and I offhandedly said how I would like a bookcase for my room. The truth is I REALLY wanted a bookcase REALLY badly -- I've got a rather small one built into my room, but... I need a big one, and there is a PERFECT space for one beside my desk -- but y'know, money's tight, didn't wanna ask for one. So my mom got me one. And a new desk chair. Yeee! The bookcase is incidentally the PERFECT size, I measured when I got home. It's 24 3/8" x 65". It's as tall as I am, hehe. (This will be useful if people go into my room and stand next to it so I can see how tall I look beside them.) The desk chair is this weird custardy banana-y yellow and is rolly. It doesn't look very comfortable but surprisingly it is.

Oh, which reminds me, I got shoes for the wedding the other day. They're quite pretty and also a bit scary, I need to learn how to walk in them properly, I am a heelnoob. They're fairly comfortable though. Just... scary.

So, in accordance with yesterday's thingy, I'll post an art piece that I like.



Isn't that the craziest fucking cake you've ever seen?? I saw it on a message board and I was like WHAT THE FUCK, SAVE.

Cake can be art and art can be cake.

For today, I'm to post 'whatever I fancy', so I shall post a celebrity whom I fancy quite a lot, Colin Firth.



Picture is from the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries which is quite good, not only for Colin Firth but also for Jennifer Ehle who is THE PERFECT ACTRESS to play Elizabeth. The entire series is fantastic, I highly recommend you go watch it. Don't watch the recent Hollywood movie version, it sucks. A lot. Ruins the characters. Is very liberal with the plot. Sucks.

Post the Seventeeth: I Don't Completely Hate Owl City

I admit it.

Okay, well, it all started when I was looking for new songs. On Sparknotes, there's a bunch of articles and stuff they publish daily and I read them. They published a mega-playlist thing and I listened to all the songs on there to try and get some new songs. One of the songs on there was The Bird and the Worm by Owl City. I was pleasantly surprised, I really liked it. I realized that I had only heard Fireflies, so I should download their album and listen to it, give them a fair chance. I've just done so. I like 3 songs from it: The Worm and the Bird, Dental Care, and Meteor Shower. The rest I don't really like. So, I retract my dislike of them.

I still dislike Fireflies though.

I've been listening to a lot of music lately. Summer and all that, all-consuming boredom, along with insomnia... it leads to my iPod being on for like 10 hours a day.

You know what's a really good soundtrack? The soundtrack of A Very Potter Musical.

I finally finished it, it was SO GOOD. My favourite song is Granger Danger, in which Ron and Draco see Hermione at the Yule Ball and fall in love with her. :D For some reason Draco's part keeps getting stuck in my head, and I always giggle at "Sheeeee is the HOTTEST GIRL I'VE EVER SEEN!!"

Tomorrow I'm having a thing at my house. Disney movie marathon. Hell yeah. I invited a ton of people, because last week I invited about 10 and like 3 showed up. So this time I invited like 16. And 10 or 11 are coming. FUCK. It'll be fun, just... hectic... ><

Alright, time for the daily prompt. A Song That Makes Me Cry.

THERE IS ONLY ONE SONG, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.



Don't judge me. DON'T YOU DARE JUDGE ME.

Even just the song makes me cry, it's true. I have it on my iPod.

Post the Sixteenth: Insomnia

So last night I slept for roughly 4 hours. I slept very restlessly for 4 hours. So I'm kind of tired.

I'm just going to post the dailies.

Day 14 - A Non-Fictional Book
I'm interpreting this as a book that actually exists. I started to reread Harry Potter 7 yesterday. Well, I reread The Prince's Tale and the part where Ron comes back. I'm going to start reading it from the beginning tonight or tomorrow.

Day 15 - A Fanfic
Okay. I will post the best fanfic I've ever read. Believe me this is an accomplishment, I used to read fanfics for several hours a day. It's called Shattering Ice. It's based upon Avatar (cartoon) and basically takes a very very minor element of the plot and exploits the shit outta it. Those familiar with the series will remember that Kanna, Katara and Sokka's grandma, was originally engaged to Pakku of the Northern Water Tribe and ran away. This story goes through their youth and them falling in love and stuff. It's very, very, VERY good.

Post the Fifteenth: Laptops and a Reply

Hello hello.

I'm wondering if, in the fall, I should bring my laptop to class instead of a notebook. I honestly cannot decide.

I don't know if it'll be odd. like, will other people bring their laptops??

I don't know if I'll be distracting. I type REALLY LOUDLY.

I don't know if it'll be practical. Notebooks are definitely more versatile and easier to carry, as well as take up less space. My laptop is pretty dang big. Plus it's not very common to get your notebooks stolen, or to have them damaged on the bus by someone shoving you against the door as the bus jerks to a sudden halt.

At this point I think I'll use a notebook for lectures. I was looking around at advice on this topic and almost everyone said you don't need them in lectures. I think they'll especially be a good idea in Astronomy, where there are equations, and German, where there's that weird B-shaped thing (ß) that, I found out today, was actually pronounced like an s. Weird.

Speaking of which, I got an email response from the Japanese teacher. She said she was available to do an informal interview on Friday... Buuuut I've decided I still want to take German, for a number of reasons.

1) I'd like to experience something new, I've been doing Japanese for 4 years.
2) Japanese is REALLY at a shitty time slot.
3) I don't want to do the stupid interview.
4) German teacher is great, while Japanese teacher sucks.
5) I don't want to stress about getting in or not getting in to JAPN200.

Plus today I was looking at German phrases, and... I must figure out how this language works. It baffles me.

Well, today's topic is A Fictional Book. I will interpret this as a book that is IN a work of fiction.

You know what book I've always really really wanted? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not the novel, the actual guide spoken of in the novel. It's like a sarcastic Wikipedia, I love it!

Post the Fourteenth: Set in Stone

Well, today I officially registered for courses. Woohoo?

Honestly it's not that big of a deal by now, as I've been obsessively planning it for years and have been REALLY obsessively planning it since the schedule was posted in June. But it's nice to have it all finalized and, y'know, REAL.

So, here it is:



As you can see, I ended up registering for German instead of Japanese. Despite my declaration that I would take German, I did try to enroll in Japanese. However, with my lack of prerequisites, I wasn't able to enroll. Meh. Whatever.

So after comparing notes with high school friends who are also going to SFU with me, I found out that I have friends in 3 of 5 of my classes. Yvette is in ARCH100 with me, Kayla is in PHYS190 (same lab too), and Kayla and Susan are in HSCI120. So, yay! :D Now I just have to make friends in HIST151 and GERM102. In theory making friends in GERM102 should be fairly simple as it's a 25-person class and has a large oral component (being a language and all). I'm slightly worried about making friends in HIST151. But there is a 17-person tutorial session, maybe I can meet someone there.

And of course then we spin off into fantasies about meeting a very cute and very nerdy guy in my History class and hitting it off with him...

Erm. Cough cough.

Incidentally, I was browsing around Facebook and I came upon one of those 'You Know You're From SFU When...' groups. I read through them. I particularly liked this one:

"77. You have been lost searching for tutorial rooms in the RCB building."

Man I haven't even started attending and I've gotten lost in that damn building!! I'm glad I'm not taking GEOG162 this term and have to deal with that labyrinthine building.

Today is Day 12, which means I can do whatever the hell I want. So, I'm going to post something that you all should watch, if you haven't already. It's called A Very Potter Musical, and it is, exactly as it sounds, a Harry Potter musical. It's all available on Youtube. Just search it. It's ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS and very well-done too. I've only watched the first half -- I'd continue but, er, it's 3 AM. -_-; Not like I have anything to do tomorrow (other than go to SFU and change their records of my SIN) but still, sleep is sort of important.

Post the Thirteenth: Unlucky!!

So I held a movie event at my house today. I initially invited like 16 friends. Only 3 showed up. I was pretty pissed off, but I still had a good time. Kind of shows who your true friends are, y'know? Well, no, that's not true. I mean I know everyone has situations and such to deal with, but still. :P

Tomorrow is course registration. I'm anxious. I hope I can get into every class I want to get into. My appointment is at 3:30 PM. I'm going to be sitting there at 3:00 STARING AT THE CLOCK... then I'll get bored and start playing solitaire or something to pass the time. Then I'll look down and it'll be 3:35 and I'll FREAK THE FUCK OUT. lol

So, today being Day 11, here's a recent picture of me:



Yes it's another grad picture. DEAL WITH IT. I like this picture, it's a good picture of my mom and I.

Post the Twelfth: Obligatory

Nothing to report. Life rolls on. I did like nothing today. So I'll just post with Day 10's task: a photo of me taken over 10 years ago.



I'm the younger one on the left. My sister is the other girl, and our dog Lacey is in the middle. I think this was taken in like 1994?

Post the Eleventh: Complications

So it seems as the days go by more and more things build up towards this SFU thing. Things change, things appear that I didn't even think were a problem, and I find out new things.

First off, I've changed my course schedule. Yet again. BUT FOR THE LAST TIME, I SWEAR. course registration is on Monday, I can't fiddle around with it for much longer.

First change: I'm dropping GEOG162 and taking ANTH100 instead.

Why? Because GEOG162 is a fricken boring course, I really want to take ANTH100, and while I DO want to take upper-division ANTH courses (meaning that I should take lower-divison ones NOW), I have no intention of taking any more GEOG courses other than GEOG162. My schedule isn't altered that much by this change: both classes are on Monday, and no other class is on Monday.

Second change: I am officially deciding to enroll in GERM102 this semester, NOT JAPN200.

I got an email back from the LTI, and while they said it was advised that I take JAPN200 I needed permission from the instructor to enroll. I thought, "But Annie didn't have to do that, she just enrolled in upper-level French." Upon checking out the French website, they allow for high school. Japanese does not. So, I am enrolling in GERM102. In one way I'm slightly relieved, Japanese was at an awkward spot in my schedule anyways.

Alright, so, that's all that's done for changes. I'm still taking HIST151, PHYS190, and HSCI120 as planned.

I tried applying for a bursary yesterday. I learned a couple of things over this process.

1) SFU doesn't have my correct social insurance number. I'm going up there today to give them the correct one so I can apply for the bursary before the deadline, which is the 16th.

2) My scholarship of $3500 is split evenly between the fall and spring semesters, meaning I only have $1750 this semester. Tuition, JUST tuition, per semester is around $2400. That means I am $650 short. Shit.

3) For SFU you cannot start applying for student loans yet. I don't know why, but it looks like you can only apply for student loans when class is actually in-session. This is retarded.

So, yeah, money. Christ. I wish I was a French citizen.

I did find out some good news though. I was on Facebook yesterday, and my English teacher (I added him as a friend) messaged me and told me I got 4 on the AP Lit exam. Yay! Later, when attempting to obtain my transcript from SFU (for the purposes of emailing the Japanese teacher), I found out that it had my AP scores on there. I got 4 on the AP Lit exam and 5 on the AP Human Geo exam!! :D I'm happy, quite happy.

Now if only I can ace my provincials, I might get a scholarship. A $1000 scholarship that will cover the gap left in my tuition fees. But I won't find that out 'til July 31.

But yeah. The plan for today is to go up to SFU and get my SIN in order, and then go make sure I know where my ARCH100 class is. I'm pretty sure I know, because when we were trekking around looking for my HIST151 tutorial we passed it.

Also on that note I should make sure I can find that HIST151 tutorial from the outside.

And now, for Day 9's task: A photo I took.



...Yep.

It's a picture of my friend at the Cancer All-Nighter, a fundraising event held at my school in May, where basically you raise money to stay awake at school all night. It goes from fun to horrible. But yeah, one of my friends had a panda balaclava. Another had a bright pink Snuggy. Shit happens.

Post the Tenth: I Hate Summer

So today is a lazy lazy day. I'm so bored that I'm actually posting on time. *GASP*

We're in the middle of a heatwave right now and it is toooo daaaaamn hot. Luckily my family bought an air conditioner back in May when they were still relatively cheap, and we set it up yesterday. It's located right behind my chair -- My desk is beside the sliding door, which is the only window in the main living area. So if I get too hot I can literally swivel around and stick my face in front of it. When I got home yesterday I stood in front of it for a few minutes letting the air blow up the front and back of my shirt. It felt NIIIIIICE.

So, yeah, I have nothing to do today. It's a bit weird since I've been pretty busy lately, but nice. But also boring. I feel the need to go out and do stuff.

I feel the need to go wander around SFU some more to get acclimatized. But it'd be useless in a way. Y'know? But it's like ever since my excursion up there a few days ago, my excitement about university has fired up again. Now I can imagine me BEING an SFU student, and... yep. Fired up.

My enrollment appointment time is 3:30 PM on July 12 (Monday). It's a pretty good time; Monday is the first day you can register. I'm not toooo worried about getting the classes I want, except for the languages. Here, I'll show you a comparison:

GERM102 or JAPN200 : 25
HIST151 : 102
HSCI120 : 120
GEOG162 : 150
PHYS190 : 216

So, yeah, y'know, only about 4-8 times larger class sizes. Whatever.

I've been talking to my friends about classes and they all say, "Take 4, take 4, take 4." But... I'm stubborn. lol I asked an upperclassman friend if I was crazy to take 5 and here's what she said:

"I took five courses first time, you won't die horribly. It won't be easy, though; you'll definitely be diving in head-first. If they're all courses you really want to take, though, I'd say go for it. If you'd rather ease in slowly/at a more regular pace, then take four. Five is definitely manageable, but it can be a lot if you're not used to it.
Just don't take three 200-level courses right off the bat like I did. That's the only thing you really shouldn't do."

(Copypasted from Facebook)

And I mean grade 12 year, a lot of them called me crazy for taking all academic courses (my least academic class ironically called Academic Reading & Writing). But I got through that just fine. So, yeah, I'm going to stick with 5. If it turns out to be a bad idea, I'll just take 4 in the spring.

I just did a search of the textbooks I'll need for fall.

USE campusbooks.com!! Seriously this thing is nifty. You enter what books you need and it tells you the lowest price they're being sold at various different online retailers. I entered in all the textbooks I'll need (through excavation for course outlines -- there's only 1 class that doesn't have one, HSCI120, so I just used the book that was used for the last 2 times it was taught) and it told me where they're being sold the cheapest. It has 'cheapest overall' or 'one-stop cheapest' options. Cheapest overall for me is $261.19 including shipping. Not bad for 7 textbooks. The most expensive is the one for HSCI120, so I kiiiind of hope that's not the textbook that's being used this term. I hope that the book that was used in Fall 2008 is used, because the cheapest price for that one is $3.62 instead of $103.10.

So, I'll put the theme for Day 8, which is a picture that makes me mad/sad.

Post the Ninth: Changing my Mind

Heeey~! In keeping with my trend I'm posting in the early hours of the following day. -_-; I need to stop doing that.

So today I had a bit of a change of mind with my schedule. I was looking at Japanese with some despair. First off, I'm not sure if I can even enroll in this class. It's a 200-level class, and although I've taken 4 years of Japanese in high school, I don't think they care. You're supposed to take a placement exam before enrolling in anything but the intro course, and... well, course registration is in 5 (4 now) days. There's no time goddamnit! Plus, I hear the teacher is a biiiitch. Plus, it's at a very awkward time in my schedule. There's a class right after it, and in order to get to it on time I'd have to pretty much run across campus. I'm not a big fan of running. So I went, "Well, what could I take instead of Japanese?" I started to look through the SFU course schedule... Anthropology? Hmm, yeah, but that doesn't fit well with my schedule. Linguistics? No, that's at an awkward spot too. German? ...German!

So, yeah, I'm seriously considering taking Introductory German I in the fall now.

Why?

-It's at a better spot in my timetable. It's still in the faraway building that Japanese was in, but now I have an hour-long break to mosey on over to my class.

-It has a better teacher. The German teacher has gotten nothing but rave reviews at RateMyProf, while the Japanese teacher has... not.

-I don't have to take a placement exam. This is highly appealing.

-I'm exposed to a new language. I don't mean to boast (yes I do) but I'm pretty good at Japanese. I mean, I'm far from fluent, but I can watch dramas, anime, etc with understanding most of it (unless it's a sci-fi, then it's more like 50% understanding). I got 96% in Japanese 12 without trying very hard. One of my ultimate life goals is to be near-fluent or at least familiar with several languages, not just be a crazy master of 1. German is a language that has always interested me, and... Well, you're supposed to expand your horizons in university.

So, yeah, I'm seriously considering it. I'm not ruling out Japanese as an option at this point. I emailed the head of the languages department today and asked if I could be placed without an exam based upon my grade received in Japanese 12. If I can enroll in JAPN200, I probably will. I'd be MUCH more comfortable in a Japanese class -- familiar environment, I know basic grammar, it's not totally new to me. It'll be a less jarring experience probably. I can always take German 2nd year -- there's only 2 courses of Japanese I can take anyways at SFU. If I can't, I'll probably go ahead and enroll in German.

And, as far as having to run to class... Well, I've got a friend who is taking the class afterwards with me and on Thursdays she's going to be in a similar situation to me (her classroom is in West Mall Centre like mine) so we'll freak out and sprint together on Thursdays.

For some reason I don't want to give specific details about my schedule yet here. Maybe I feel like I'll be jinxing it?? I don't know. You'll find out the specifics soon enough.

So, yeah, today I went back up to SFU and explored the West Mall Centre, where the language classrooms are. They're teeeny. The language classes only have room for 25 students, so the rooms are pretty small.

As I was walking around SFU, I got the familiar feeling of not belonging. I still feel like a kid, and everyone there's an adult. I mean, I caught sight of my reflection in a window and I physically look like I belong, but I still don't feel it. It'll fade with time, I know.

I'm at least becoming more familiar with the layout of SFU. It's a pretty simple school to get around in -- all roads lead back to the AQ. When in doubt, go to the AQ and wander around until you see a sign.

So, today (yesterday) being Day 7, I'm supposed to post a photograph that makes me happy.



It's a picture at my graduation with my mom and sister. I think this encapsulates my family pretty well. It makes me smile whenever I see it. :)

Anyways, with that, I bid thee good night.

お休みなさいみんな！
ほらぁ、私は日本語の授業を要らないよ！もう上手だ！

Post the Eighth: Exploring the Future

Like my new layout? I do. It's sufficiently nerdy. Plus it kind of matches my blog title and reminds me that this blog is supposed to be about the SFU university experience...

So today I took two of my friends and went and explored SFU. My reasoning was that it was better to get lost now than in September 15 minutes before I had to get to class.

I had a very basic knowledge of SFU... and by 'very basic knowledge' I mean "I'd walked around the Academic Quadrangle about 5 dozen times during the course of Anime Evolution 2007." However, I knew that there was much, much more to SFU than just wandering around in the AQ.

The good news is that SFU is much less confusing than I initially assumed. Almost all of my classes are either in the Academic Quadrangle or are in buildings that are directly connected to the AQ. The only exception is my Japanese lecture, which is in a building that we forgot to go explore. Furthermore, not only are the classes close together, they're all easily accessible. Here, I'll give you a detailed run-down.

PHYS190 lecture, HIST151 lecture, and GEOG162 tutorial are all in the same hallway of the AQ. PHYS190 and GEOG162 are RIGHT BESIDE EACH OTHER, and HIST151 is literally across the hall.

The HSCI120 lecture is held in the first classroom you come to when entering Saywell Hall from the AQ.

The GEOG162 lecture is the first classroom you come to when entering K Building from P Building (from the AQ).

The PHYS190 laboratory is a bit more difficult to find, but it's just a hallway and right turn away when coming from the AQ.

The only exception to this rule is the HIST151 tutorial, which was found in the FURTHEST REACHES of Robert C Brown Hall, which is basically a concrete multi-leveled labyrinth with vague and confusing signs that feels like something out of a horror movie. However, I found a much MUCH easier route to the class -- there was an open doorway at the end of the hallway where my classroom was. It was the literal light at the end of the tunnel. The doorway leads pretty much directly to the outside of the AQ.

As I said before, I don't exactly know where my JAPN200 class is yet, but I'm going to return to SFU briefly tomorrow and figure that out before I go out with my friends.

My impression of SFU visually was also altered. I still believe that SFU is a concrete doom block -- hell, it's socialist architecture, it's kind of in the description -- but the good news is that the administration has apparantly realized this and worked to make the outside of SFU as appealing as possible. Maybe it's just because today was a beautiful summer day, but I genuinely thought SFU was beautiful today.

The only criticism I have at this point is that SFU seems kind of... quiet. Y'know? Like, we'd walk through the AQ, and there'd be like... 5 other people in the 300 m long hallway... But this could be attributed to it being summer; even though SFU technically runs on a trimester system, there are a lot less people who take classes during the summer.

Another thing that will doubtlessly pass with time is that I felt like I was invading the school. I don't feel like a university student yet. But, again, that'll pass with time. I felt like that at the beginning of high school. I just have to acclimatize myself to the new environment. But, gotta say, it's going to be weird going to school with people who have beards.

At this point my least favourite part of SFU is probably the bus ride... the LONG... ENDLESS... SLOOOOOOW bus ride up the hill. Although I'll probably come to love it in the future. I can utilize it to cram, or listen to music to wake myself up, or people-watch... I'm not looking forward to taking the super-busy bus every day though. It was quietish today but again, summertime. Plus we went pretty late in the day, we got up there at around 5-ish and left at 6:30. Most classes have already let out.


So, today is (was, it's just past midnight damnit) Day 6, and I can do WHATEVER I LIKE. >:D

Soooo... I'll talk my favourite mangas. Because I don't see a 'favourite mangas' category on the thing, and I'm a manga freak. I'll talk about my 3 favourite finished series and my 3 favourite ongoing series.

Genshiken - Shimoku Kio
This one is pretty damned geeky. It's a slice-of-life comedy about a college club of anime/game/manga/etc geeks called Genshiken. Genshiken is short for Gendai Shikaku Bunkai Kenkyuukai, or 'The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture'. It's an excellent manga for people who are hopelessly geeky like me. There's a wide, diverse range of characters, from the geek-hating girlfriend of a geek to a guy who loves building models and sewing costumes. It's not just about the geeky culture, although plots often revolve around that -- it's more about these people and their lives.
Also the main character has the same birthday of me and is actually uncannily like me in how he acts. Whenever I read it I go, "...Wow, that's actually how I'd act... Do people see me like that?!"

Fullmetal Alchemist - Hiromu Arakawa
This one is freaking popular for damn good reason. It's a fantasy action series that is very hard to explain. Basically, the plot revolves around 2 brothers who tried to revive their dead mother through alchemy, a forbidden practice, and ended up losing parts of their body -- the older brother lost an arm and a leg and the younger brother lost his entire body; his soul is encapsulated in a suit of armour. Now, they seek to obtain the Philosopher's Stone, a substance that amplifies alchemical power and will give them the power to return to their original bodies. To gain access to research that might lead them to the Stone, the older brother becomes a State Alchemist, an alchemist that serves the military. They become embroiled in a great conspiracy involving the entire country. It's EXCELLENTLY written; not only does it have amazing action, the characters are compelling and you are NEVER EVER left bored. This is an absolute masterpiece. It ended about a month ago.

Hana Kimi - Hisaya Nakajo
This is a genderbending romance. Before you back away slowly, let me explain. A Japanese-American girl falls in love with a famous high-jumper, but, after an accident, he loses the will to jump. She moves to Japan and disguises herself as a boy in order to enter the all-boys school to convince the man she loves to return to the high-jump. They end up becoming classmates, roommates, and close friends. However, after an accident, the man picks the girl up and realizes she is a girl (he, er, kind of felt her up). He slowly falls in love with her, unbeknownst to her. This story is hilarious and SO GODDAMNED CUTE. It's probably the best romance series I've ever read.

Ouran High School Host Club - Bisco Hatori
Another genderbending romantic-comedy. A shabby bespectacled girl gets a scholarship to a super-rich high-class high school, and, after accidentally breaking a $300,000 vase, she must repay her debt to the Host Club, a club of handsome male students who entertain female students for money. She initally works as their lackey, but they realize she's got potential as a host, they give her a uniform, a haircut, and contacts. It's only after they've decided to make her a host that they realize she's a girl. However, to repay her debt, she lives at the school as a boy, with her female gender only known to the people in her club. The club leader, a princely charming yet totally idiotic boy, slowly falls in love with her, and she falls in love with him. As the manga stands right now, she's just confessed to him. It should update in a few days; much to everyone's rage, it took a month-long hiatus. It only updates once a month, but is worth it.

Kimi ni Todoke - Karuho Shiina
A romantic comedy. It's about a girl who resembles the girl from The Ring and has scared off potential friends all her life. Despite her appearance, she is very sweet and innocent and wants more than anything to be accepted by her classmates. However, this year, her grade 11 year, is different. She makes friends with two girls in her class who aren't scared off by her. She becomes known to her class as a sweet helpful girl. And, the most kind and popular boy in school who she holds a secret crush for, begins to fall in love with her. The series is about her dealing with all these new common things -- for example, being invited to a Christmas party brings her to happy tears. She's so sweet and innocent that you can't help but love her. Right now she and the boy have just gotten together, and they're stumbling about each other cutely. It hasn't updated in awhile much to my chagrin.

Hourou Musuko - Takako Shimura
A genderbending slice-of-life! Yes I really like the genderbending ones. This story is about a grade 6 boy who secretly wants to be a girl. He steals his sister's clothes and wears them. He discovers that a girl in his class crossdresses as a boy. They become friends and bond over this secret. This series is nothing but DAWWWWW and is so indescribably cute. It moves really, really, REALLY slowly though.

So, yeah, those are my favourite manga series. :P

Post the Seventh: Weddings are Busytime

Oh my. I have fallen behind. No surprises, I suppose.

Yesterday was my sister's wedding shower, which I was hosting, and today we crossed the border to go shopping for my bridesmaid dress. The shower went well and I got a dress, and all is fine. Other than the fact that I have little free time and it depresses me.

SO, let's marathon through the Tasks I've missed.

DAY 4 - My favourite book!

My favourite book... This is a tough one. I'll pick my two favourite books, one fiction and one non-fiction.

I apologize in advance for gushing. I am a book nerd. I will freely admit this.

My favourite novel is Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Many people have heard of the musical adaptation, but it pales, ABSOLUTELY PALES, in comparison with the novel upon which it was loosely based. (Very loosely based.) The novel follows Elphaba, AKA the Wicked Witch of the West (from L Frank Baum's beloved book The Wizard of Oz) from her birth to her canonical death and paints an absolutely fascinating picture of this archetypical villian. The novel is amazingly broad in its scope, examining things from the nature of evil to the role of religion. The characters are fascinating and unique, and one thing that is done that I grudgingly like is that not much exposition is given; you are left to sort out the characters for yourself based upon their actions and words. The book is occasionally dark and often philosophical, but is also funny. Not only are its contents fascinating, it is written in a manner that takes my breath away. I've often said that besides content I focus on the writing style, and Maguire's writing is... amazing. I love the writing. I would provide a quote but every single bit of it is amazing and stunning and makes me reel in wonder.

My favourite non-fiction book is Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which I am in the process of reading. This book basically addresses the question of why there are inequalities among human societies; in particular, why Europeans have become dominant over other peoples. It doesn't base the question on superiority of genes or such archaic ideas, but attributes it to 3 basic factors: guns, germs, and steel. It's difficult to explain, as the book starts in prehistorical times and brings it to current day, but I don't exaggerate when I say it's the most fascinating book I've ever read. It goes into so much detail and examines every aspect of society -- there are several chapters based upon the domestication of animals -- that it's impossible to not find SOME of it fascinating. For me, who's passion is basically the thesis of this book -- why human societies came to exist as they do today -- this book is like treasure. I also like how it examines cultures that I don't know much about; for example, the Maori are a constant theme throughout the book. It's a really interesting read, isn't very difficult to follow, and teaches you a lot.


NOW, for Day 5, AKA 'today' -- It's technically the 6th as I write this but I haven't gone to bed yet so in my mind it's like the 5th...

YOUR FAVOURITE QUOTE!

...You bastards. I'm a quote-whore.

If I had to pick one, just one, it'd probably be:

We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.
-Mal, Firefly (played by Nathan Fillion)

Why is this my favourite quote? I don't know.

No really, I don't. There's just something about it... Like, you can be mighty by doing something that you thought was impossible. Greatness is achievable by breaking beyond the boundaries that have been set for you.

...Yeah I don't really know.

Anyways, off to bed, tired as hell.

Post the Sixth: Life Rolls On

So this post is kinda late, as I didn't write one last night like I usually do because I was busy -- more on that later -- and I was basically not home today.

The reason I was busy last night is because I started learning how to write hangul. Yep. IDK why. I got bored. It's vaguely amusing, now I can read random Korean signs. Sort of. I know how to pronounce them. I have nooo fucking idea what they mean.

Today was one of my friends' birthdays, so we went over there and invaded her house for a bit. It was a lot of fun. We watched Youtube videos, watched Team America: World Police and Spice World (we're cool like that hell yeah) danced around, played Twister, invaded the local elementary school's playground at midnight... It was a lot of fun, yep yep yep.

I sort of realized I essentially have 3 core groups of friends now that often intermingle but basically stay separate. I have friends who went to my elementary school, who were in my high school's Writers' Club, or are grade 11s. The grade 11 group is the newest, I've been friends with one of them for a few years but just began making friends with the rest this year. The groups are all fun in distinctly different ways. My elementary school friends are good if I want to relax; they're the only ones I feel like I can act like myself around, say whatever I want, etc. I feel like no matter what happens these folks will still love me and be there for me, and that's very reassuring. The club friends are good for crazy fun times and also for going on adventures, but I often feel like I'm on the fringe. The grade 11s are good for geekiness and messing around and they're also really good at making me feel welcome even though I'm new. It's still slightly awkward with a couple of them however.

As it's Day 3 (or was), it's time to talk about MY FAVOURITE SHOW!!!

You all know what's coming. It's Firefly. You're not surprised. See previous post talking about Serenity to see why I love it.

SERIOUSLY THOUGH IT'S JUST SO GOOD. It's like pure happiness injected into my eyeballs. The characters, the relationships, the plot, the script, the props, the costumes, the EVERYTHING... just... grrrgh. So good. So amazingly wonderfully good. It's funny yet dramatic. It's fantasy yet realistic.

Other than Firefly, what shows do I like?
-Avatar. Best cartoon ever. Seriously. It's like Firefly as far as quality goes IMO. See praise. It all fits.
-Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The 'remake', AKA the version that didn't delve into fanfiction territory because the manga series wasn't done yet. The plot is AMAZING, the characters are so loveable, and the action scenes... make me happy. In many ways.
-Quite Interesting. It's a British trivia/comedy show, where they talk about obscure, interesting trivia and dispute commonly-held beliefs. It's horribly entertaining and very addictive.

I don't watch a lot of TV, and the stuff I do watch typically isn't on TV. (Yeah internet!)

Anyways, I need to sleeeeep. It's my sister's wedding shower tomorrow. Urgh.

Post the Fifth: Canada Day

My blog is likely going to take a bit of a personal edge for awhile, at least 'til school starts up again.

Today was Canada Day. I left the house at 9:15 AM and got home at around 11:30 PM. Good day.

I went to go see The Last Airbender movie in the morning. I'm still not sure what to think of it. I was expecting it to be terrible. It wasn't terrible but it was by no means good. I watched a bit of Avatar later and it struck me exactly HOW terrible the movie was in comparison.

Then I went to a BBQ at my friend's house. It was really REALLY fun. It was with a bunch of somewhat new friends and I'm really enjoying spending time with them and getting to know them. They're pretty rowdy but in a good way. They're mostly Asian guys weirdly enough, I noticed today. It was kind of funny, we got there about an hour late and when we came in all the Asian guys were sitting in the living room playing video games -- on their DSes or on the TV. Me, the white girl, goes, "Ooh, video games," and plops down with them and starts playing. And nothing is amiss.

So, yeah, we hung around in the living room playing video games, then migrated upstairs and played more video games, then came down for supper, a delicious supper of burgers. There were 9 of us that somehow crowded around a table originally set up for 4 people. Then I passed out upstairs. I was tired. Later we went outside and lied in the grass. As always the gymnastics instructor did handstands and tricks and somehow ALWAYS FELL ON TOP OF ME. Jackass. He does it on purpose just to annoy me I swear. Then came back inside and went upstairs and watched Youtube videos. Specifically the There She Is mini-series. I was listening to my iPod and one of the songs from the series came on, and I said to my Korean friend, "Hey I have Korean music on here." I showed him and he went, "OH this song!!" And then we started talking excitedly about the series and decided to watch it on Youtube. After that, the host of the party wanted to sleep -- it was about 11, he had to work the next day, and he's a big baby -- so we went downstairs and I left pretty much immediately afterwards. There was a ride shipping out and I jumped at the opportunity to not have to call my mother and beg. Incidentally all the people who left with that ride happened to be all the white people at the party -- 4 in all including myself. It was totally coincidental but also hilarious.

So, yeah, that's all the news that's new here. Today was a pretty hectic day.

On an actual SCHOOL-RELATED note, AP scores are officially open to be reported today. At the BBQ we realized this and all pulled out our numbers excitedly. However, as we found out when the first of us called in, you need to pay to get your score early. We're cheap, so none of us did. They send out the paper transcript of your marks in mid-July, so we should get them by August.

On a personal note I'm feeling sort of emotionally confused right now. It's becoming more and more apparant that they guy I'm interested in isn't interested back and will probably never be interested back. So I have to wonder where things stand as far as my feelings go, and what I should do about it. Some days I'm verging on being in love with him, and then days like today I'm ready to give up on him.

To make it worse I'm noticing that I'm seemingly really compatible personality-wise with another guy. I don't really see him in a romantic light but it still makes me confused with the guy I DO like -- like, if I can talk more easily with another guy, does that mean the guy I like isn't totally compatible with me? Y'know? I kind of held the guy I like on a pedestal, I actually thought/still sort of think he's perfect for me, but there's all these things... But then like there's lots of people who have close friends of the opposite gender that get along with them in a totally different way than they do their significant other. Y'know?

I honestly think, at this point, that the only thing that's wrong with him FOR ME is that he doesn't like me back. If he could somehow like me back romantically... Yeah. I think things would be good.

ANYWAYS.

Seeing as how today is now technically July 2nd (it's 1:36 AM as I write this), it's time for the task of Day 2 -- My Favourite Movie!!

This is a difficult topic for me as I don't like a lot of movies, and the movies I do like I watch over and over and over again until the things I love about them become boring.

However, if I had to choose a favourite movie, I would probably choose Serenity, the movie made from the cult classic show Firefly.

Not a surprise, I know. But Serenity is essentially an extension of Firefly, more or less like a 2 hour-long episode. The characters are well-developed and absolutely lovable, the plot is solid, the script is fan-fucking-tabulous, and, for Firefly fans like myself, there is a lovely amount of exposition.

The only reasons I dislike this film is because of certain events towards the end of the movie that make it basically impossible to create a continuation of Firefly. And also because with these events, certain questions about the plot are left unsolved. Fans will know what I'm talking about. I'm trying not to spoil it.

Anyways, I'm getting sleepy. Understandable, I only slept 6 hours last night and spent the entire day with extremely energetic people trekking around the city. I'll write tomorrow!