Wednesday, October 29, 2003
This week seems to be going so slowly. I don't know, it seems like it ought to be Friday by now, but it isn't. Seemingness is a filthy, dirty, lie.
I have decided that I hate MTV now and forever. It is the worst channel ever to be created. I would rather watch the History channel than MTV. I can feel myself getting painfully more stupid by being in the presence of a TV playing MTV. And whenever I am in the room, I am forced to be in the presence of MTV. It is horrible. I will detest it for life. Any show on MTV is automatically a show made out of poison.
Joyously, I did not have any art classes today. A water main burst yesterday, and I guess that vast amounts of water were lost, because today there was no water whatsoever in the Arts and Architecture Building. So I got several emails from several teachers informing me that the entire building was closed and I should stay away if I valued my health and happiness. I guess that without any working toilets the building was not a good place to be. They claim that it'll be open again tomorrow, but I can hope, can I not?
I have an art project due sometime soon (next week? the week after that? I dunno, I'm bad with dates) that involves varnishing a bunch of clay fruits which I have built. But I must varnish them with a coat of candy wrappers, see. So it makes a hideously angsty comment on American eating habits and how we horrid Americanfolk prefer all our fruit 'candified' and such. I know it's lame and terribly cliché, but I couldn't think of anything else in time that was practicable. I am sorry. In any event. I had to go out today and purchase a great many bags of candy. It being almost Halloween, this is thankfully easy to do. For once I timed a project properly.
So now I just have to dispose of the candy somehow so that I may utilize the wrappers. My hall is being very good about helping me with the project. I've got people all over the hall coming in to eat candy and then give me the wrappers. Even the roommate is lending a helping hand. Kevin took an entire bag of those little Hershey's chocolate bars and ate them himself, which was scary, but very helpful for the artistic cause.
I was going to bring in the candy and make my CFC class eat them, but we didn't have class today, so that wasn't a-gonna happen. Although I did see two of my art school buddies over in Stockwell today (Heather and Emily). They both live there, I was just visiting with some other Mojoers for the purposes of lunching.
Today whilst wandering about campus I came across some graffitti which said "$ eats your soul". I almost laughed out loud in the middle of the diag. Because, you see, that's almost exactly something that I would say. I highly approve of whoever wrote it. Woo yay for things eating souls!
I had my handwashed turkey away message up today, and it confused Kate. So I made her go to the link I just posted right there so that she would know what I was on about. I don't think she understood any better after she had seen the animation, but really, anyone who doesn't appreciate the gloriousness of Weebl and Bob is a bad person.
Some folks on my hall are selling their Ohio State v. Michigan tickets, and they want me to make a flyer for them so they can advertise this fact all about campus. They're assured to get buyers pretty much no matter what I do with this flyer, because people are foaming at the mouth to get their hands on Ohio State tickets, but I figured I ought to try to be at least a wee bit interesting. So the flyers say
WHAT IS A BUCKEYE?
Don't know? Don't care? It's OK, no one does. But you still want to see the game of the year, right?
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!
And it's also got a straightforward graphic I made of the evil Ohio State symbol versus the Michigan block M. And contact information. Lookit that, I've already started learning from that heinously boring digital class. I made the flyer in Illustrator. Wow I am so very learningful.
Two tattoo designs, one dragon for a kid's room, one football ticket flyer... what the dickens, people? I am not a professional tattoo artist/illustrator/graphic designer. Why do people think that I am? I am at a loss to comprehend.
Dinner summons me. I go to eat souls. Ha HA!
or at the very least some mushrooms over pasta. good stuff, that.
5:22 PM
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Oh my. What a thoroughly glorious weekend it was. Therefore, this shall be a longish blog. Sorry.
It was Parent's Weekend, which meant that the family (minus cats) came out here. Much joy and happiness and such.
Friday night we ate dinner at the Real Seafood Company, which had good food but a ridiculous wait. Everywhere on campus was packed with parents trying to take their kids out to dinner. I ate steakness because that's something I don't eat in the dining halls, and it's not exactly something I can heat up real quick in the dorm microwave.
After dinner we managed to completely lose the car in the parking garage. It was a rental, so we didn't know it by sight as perfectly as we otherwise might have, but there's still no excuse. My dad was convinced that he knew where it was, but we ended up wandering in circles around three floors of the garage, going over the same ground several times, before we found it in a part of the second floor which we had somehow missed before. It was most unfortunate yet somewhat amusing.
Then my family dropped me off at the State Street Theater, where I met Caroline for the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was absolutely insane. People were wearing... oy. Well. Pretty much what you would expect them to be wearing. Very flamboyant feather boas. Very high black boots, and lots of spike heels, and lots of underwear, and lots of fishnets and garters and the like. Many, er, corsets. And makeup. Lots and lots of makeup. All of this was on both the guys and the girls, of course.
And all of this despite the very biting cold in Ann Arbor at midnight. Most of these people had more bare skin than clothing, and everyone was standing outside for about half an hour before they opened the doors, and this didn't stop anyone from coming, um, dressed up.
I felt somewhat under (or perhaps over, depending on how you look at it) dressed for the event. I was wearing jeans and my Miami Dolphins sweatshirt. I have yet to meet anyone else out here who's a Dolphins fan, so I was pretty counterculture in that sense, but not otherwise. It was a very subtle sort of radical dress which probably only I appreciated.
ah, of course, a tranvestite transsexual from transylvania. most people at the show were attired similarly to this
The show itself was absolutely amazing. Before the movie even started there were two choreographed numbers by the acting troupe in charge of the event. The first involved them acting out that System of a Down song, 'When Angels Deserve to Die', which had nothing at all to do with the Rocky Horror Picture Show and was awesome in it's sheer inexplicable System of a Down-ness. The second one was some sort of zombie remake of a Michael Jackson music video, with steps from the Time Warp incorporated into it.
Then, after doing some rather nasty and amusing things to a few of the 'virgins' in the crowd (those who hadn't seen the show live before), they started the movie. But this was not as other movie viewings are. Some members of the acting troupe acted out the movie on the large stage right in front of the screen. The girl playing Janet was very overweight, which added a great deal to the show. The guy playing Frank put in some graphic details of his own invention during the Seducing Brad scene which got very loud cheers from the crowd.
Others wandered around the aisles of the movie theater yelling things at/in tandem with the screen. For instance, whenever Susan Sarandon appeared, they would shout, "Slut! Slut!" Whenever the sort-of narrator appeared they would make jokes about how he seemed to have no neck. There was a lot more, most of it really quite clever, but of course I can't precisely recall all of it.
And, quite naturally, when the Time Warp came on, everyone in the theater had to get up and dance along. I think that damn song was stuck in my head all night.
Yes, so Friday night was a thoroughly glorious time.
Then on Saturday I woke up early (well, 10ish... but I didn't even get back to the dorm Friday night until around 3 am, so 10 after that is pretty early) and had lunch at Cosi on Central Campus with the family. We wandered around the Michigan shops but they were mobbed with people buying Michigan-themed goodness for their families.
And of course then it was time to head down to the football game. Eli had never been to one before. We walked down past all the frats, as usual, and there were people out drinking, as usual, but they were much more subdued than was usual. Probably because it was Parent's Weekend. We ended up following the band into the stadium. They really are an impressive lot when they're marching down the street.
The game was great. We beat Purdue 31 to 3. By the end of it their quarterback was on the sideline, barely able to stand up. We had hit him a great many times, you see. The crowd was very loud whenever Purdue had the ball, and they had to call a timeout right before a snap more than once because they couldn't hear the play being called. Jess textmessaged me at one point, and since I had no idea how to reply to that, I called her. But then I had to get off the phone because it was really too loud to hear anything.
There were a couple of altercations with Purdue fans which involved a lot of yelling and pointing and throwing of small projectiles. No one in the student section got into any fistfights, though. My parents and brother were sitting in a section across the stadium from me, and I hear tell that there were fightfights over yonder. Hmph. Damn parents. The students are much better behaved.
The one thing I will give Purdue is that they had a very good band. Their marching was most impressive. They spelled out 'Purdue' and then floated it across the field. During the halftime show they made a trumpet, and then a number of band members ran out of the end of it and formed musical notes. Much coolness. They also had a giant drum which was a bit silly and looked like it belonged in a circus, but the rest of their band was quite skilled.
The Michigan band pulled out a few new tricks for this game, probably because they knew that Purdue had a really good band and they didn't want to look bad. The best one was when then all went to the center of the field and sat down or knelt or stood in concentric rows so that they formed this utterly bizarre looking hemisphere of band, with all the instruments sticking out. It looked like a spiny hedgehog with the head and limbs tucked in. Then someone in the middle stuck up a Michigan flag and waved it around. Quite cool.
Since my family was sitting no where near me, I walked back with Caroline like I always do. They were to meet me back at my dorm. When I was in the diag (most of the way back to my dorm from the stadium), my mother called. It turns out that they had managed to get lost on the way out of the stadium and were wandering around in some sort of suburbian netherland. How they did this, I do not really know. All you ever have to do is follow the huge stream of people coming out of the stadium back up to Central Campus. And even if you somehow failed to do that, well, both my parents went to Michigan. My dad apparently thought that he knew where he was going, but clearly did not.
By this time it was raining, and cold, and very, very dark out. And I was almost back at my dorm, while they were wandering around without a clue as to where they were. I laughed.
By the time they got back to my dorm, it seemed like we weren't going to be able to get in anywhere to eat, since no one had any reservations open before 10 pm. But then we managed to call this one rather fancy French restaurant and in we got. We went there and were seated right away, but the food took forever to come. It was good when it did, but it took about an hour. The dessert was extra glorious, though... a chocolate cakelette filled with chocolate ganache. I couldn't finish it, since I am not used to eating proper meals anymore. But it was quite delish.
After dinner I went back to the dorm and collapsed in exhaustion. Only to be awakened around 3:15 in the am by dear roommate coming in and crunching cereal. She's out right now at her sorority, and I sincerely hope this does not mean she's coming back late, since I have a little something known as 'Morning Class' tomorrow and I cannot afford to be sleeping during it.
Yup. So this morning I woke up early again and went to the hotel to eat breakfast with the family. Then they drove me back here and said goodbye and all. Then I did homework and watched the Lions lose to the freaking impaired Bears.
The thing of it is, the Lions actually had a chance there at the end. They played abysmally for the first half of the game, it is true, but then late in it they got two touchdowns and two 2 point conversions, making the score 24-16. So they needed to recover an onside kick and get another touchdown and 2 point conversion to send it into overtime. This was quite possible, since they had just gotten themselves into a streak of goodplayingness.
They kick the onside kick. They recover it! Hurrah, there is hope! But then the officials call it back for review and end up saying that it looks like the Lion who recovered the ball did so before it had gone 10 yards, which you can't do on an onside kick. The announcers play the tape a few times from a few more angles, and they all decide that it looks very much like the Lions made a clean catch of it and ought to have gotten the ball. But the officials gave it to the Bears who then sat on it to run out the clock and win the game.
In other words, AAAAARRRRRRGH. Even if the Lions do start playing well, fate intervenes to make sure that they don't win. Last week Harrington couldn't throw the damn ball. This week he made some good throws, and the receivers dropped them all. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A GAME WHERE EVERYBODY DOES WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO?
Such agony. But I love them anyways.
Yes, so, I probably should go do some homework right about now. Yes. Homework sounds like a good idea.
*There is a commercial for the DVD of The Lion King where a Detroit Lions coach goes everywhere in the lockerroom asking people "Where's Harrington? Where's Harrington?" until someone tells him that Harrington's watching films. So the coach goes in and Harrington's with a couple other players with headphones on, watching The Lion King. 'Cause they're the Detroit Lions. And it's The Lion King.
Upon viewing this commercial, my brother: "Bet they have a back-up version of this with Mike McMahon."
I found that grimly hilarious.
5:58 PM
Thursday, October 23, 2003
The guest artist lecture today was given by a guy who is a biomedical illustrator, so I was pretty excited for it in the first place.
It turns out that all of his research and artwork is centered around imaging the FETUS! It was freaking incredible. He does all these MRI images of embryos and fetuses for his research. Then for his artwork he makes these animations of the fetuses rotating and going through the various MRI layers, all played to lullabies from around the world. He showed us a bunch of them. They gave me shivers.
We only had to write three papers for the guest artist lecture series, so after we got the three done, we just have to attend all the following lectures. I, of course, didn't bother picking and choosing, I just did the first three artists we had speak, so I got all of the papers out of the way really quickly. This means that I no longer need to take anything even remotely resembling notes at the lectures.
So I had this whole pageful of really just horrid fetus doodles. One of a fetus wearing a tie and bowler hat and holding a suitcase seemed to particularly terrify the person sitting next to me (it was Heather). I also had someone juggling fetuses, someone playing fetal soccer, and a person being attacked by multitudinous fetuses. And, of course, the caped Super Fetus, with his incredible power of Stem Cells.
The website with all this lecturer's fetus photographness on it is the Multidimensional Human Embryo. Good stuff. I could swear that we used this site last year in AP Biology. You should visit it, it's sort of a big deal in the scientific world.
It is things like this animation by Weebl which make me happy that the Internet exists. It sort of helps if you know who Patrick Moore is, but I suppose it's not entirely mandatory.
I might be going to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show for the midnight showing either Friday or Saturday! If Caroline can get tickets, that is. If she can, off we go. It will be good times. I haven't seen it in ages.
Parents and Eli coming tomorrow night! Assuming that the plane is not randomly delayed or anysuchathing. We know how those go.
I cleaned up my desk and the area immediately surrounding it in anticipation of their arrival. It all looks so nice now. I also washed my quilt thing, but that's not immediately noticeable. Very nice for sleeping in, though. Pity I can't do anything about the bits of the room not directly inhabited by me, and as the room's so small half a clean side is completely overwhelmed, impression-wise, by the messy half. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.
I think I must have punched Joe at least 8 times today. The poor guy. But he was sitting next to me in Digital (which started today and is boring) and the bus back from North Campus, and then he was in the row in front of me at the lecture, so every time I greeted him or got overexcited by fetal joys... well, that's how I express such things. He is very goodnatured about it.
Oh, it was funny being on the bus with him. He's usually not because he usually brings his car, but I guess he didn't today, or else he had left it parked somewhere on Central Campus, so he had to take the bus. He's very tall so he didn't really fit into any of the seats... his knees were all smashed against the seat in front of him. He was very grumpy. I was amused.
Tomorrow the woman who does our regular art lecture has something better to do, so we're having discussion groups. This is not good. The last time we had one I ended up getting into a huge, Mock Trial-like battle with some other kids about whether color field painting was art or not (I say it ain't). But, on the plus side, my GSI (graduate student instructor) is widely regarded as something of a Hot Fellow, so that makes things more agreeable to me and every other female in the class (and probably some of the males as well).
I should really go do some work. Yes. Should.
9:25 PM
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Woo yay for chicken tender day at Stockwell! The availability of edible meat means that I avoided another meal of salad. I can't knock the dorm salad bar, it's pretty good, but I think it's safe to say that I'm getting a mite sick of it.
Oh, and they've got cheese quesedillas for dinner today! Joyous hurrah! Things which I will happily consume! If you want to check out what they're feeding us here at UMich, you can view the Residential Hall Dining Services website. Mojo and Stockwell are both on the Blue menu (different dorms are on either the Blue or the Maize menu), so if you click on the linky on the side which says 'Weekly Blue Menu' you can see what I am, or am not, eating.
Anything with beef/pork/invertebrates in it, any sort of meat with spicely-connotated names in it (like Cajun), and anything that claims it was made by old people (like Grandmother's Beefy Goodness) will go uneaten by me.
Yesterday was my portfolio review, which I think went pretty well. The teacher said things to the effect that he thought I had a very good future ahead of me in the art school and he rather hoped our paths crossed again. Which makes me tend to think that my grade is at least not going to be a failing one. Joy.
Yesterday was also my chemistry exam, which was maybe not quite so much joy. I felt like it took me longer than the last one did. Heck, it did take me longer, because I got out of this one around 10 at night. I ran into Seth as I was coming out and he insisted on walking me back to my dorm, which was awfully nice of him because a) he doesn't even live on the hill and b) it was pretty unnecessary because everything is very well-lit, and there are people walking to and from the hill on weeknights until around 2:30-3 am, so you're never walking alone. But it was dark out, so it was a damned decent gesture for him to make. Right-o.
I then sat on the phone with my mother for a very long time so she could tell me what was happening in a Eukanuba dog show that she was watching. Bunny the Ibizan was competing and won best of breed again, but again failed to get best in show. I love that freaking dog, she's gorgeous. The son of Mick (best in show at Westminster last year) was in the show, but he didn't win either. Best in show was a Pekingese. Ugly little critters.
now you tell me which is more handsome, the peke (top) or the ibizan (bottom)
Westminster this year, by the way, is February 9 and 10. I, of course, will be watching. An event not to be missed.
I think it worth noting that while on the phone with my mother I ended up having to go sit out in the hall because it was too loud in my room to hear anything. Did my roommate have friends over? No. It was just her and the TV. And she is loud enough on her cell phone to be heard by everyone on the hall. People have actually commented on it. And MTV on high volume did not help matters. Thusly I had to go sit outside.
People walking by gave me sympathetic looks. After all, everyone within 50 feet of our room could hear what sort of a racket was going on within.
I got several comments already today on my 'vintage' Michigan sweatshirt. It's a classic design, they don't sell it anymore. Of course it was my mother's. Now it is cool. Wow. Not only has my wardrobe been thoroughly Michiganized, I even have hard-to-find vintage Michigan apparel. I am like the funky and subtle counterculture of school spirit. Ha ha!
Today as we were walking back from lunch. Shelby: "You're the first Jewish person I've ever met. I think I like Jewish people."
Made my day, that did.
Off to go clean my glasses before they become completely opaque, and then snag me a bus up north. G'day.
12:22 PM
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Leeuwenhoek, as we all know, was the fellow who had fun with the first single lens microscope. When he saw the microorganisms floating around, he referred to them as
"cavorting wee beasties" and "multifarious very little animacules aswimming"
Awesomeness.
2:32 PM
Monday, October 20, 2003
Michigan gloriously defeated Illinois on Saturday, 56-14. Ha ha. May they stew in shame. Next week is Purdue, which is a good team, so very 'eek'. My family will be here though! Free foodstuffs! Good times with the parents and brother Eli! I writhe in excitement.
There was a kid two rows in front of me wearing a Soriano shirt and a Yankees hat. I was complaining about this to my bemused football buddy Caroline (she's from Chicago, so she was sad about the Cubs). A guy sitting a couple people down from us in our row apparently heard me, because he leaned over to highfive me and shouted, "Yeah! Yankees SUCK!" The Soriano kid turned around with death in his eyes, and we squared off for a confrontation which probably would have turned nasty if Michigan hadn't happened to score just then, distracting everyone involved and diffusing the anger. Hoofa. Filthy stinking Yankees fans.
Our next two games after Purdue are away, versus Michigan State and Northwestern respectively. If we beat State, I need to call up my Uncle Al and harass him. If we beat Northwestern I need to call up Dave and harass him. Then we have a home game against Ohio State, which is our biggest frelling rival ever. The game's going to be better than the Notre Dame one was. More insane. More awesome. I promise to bring a camera so y'all can see the madness.
We won't talk about the Lions. Well. Hmph. TV announcer for the Lions game: "Man, lions haven't taken this much heat since Sigfreid and Roy!" Technically, those were tigers, but the sentiment is the same. Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh.
My roommate is in Kappa Kappa Gamma. Apparently people make fun of this particular sorority by calling it Visa Visa Mastercard. Which is so incredibly true that, when my roommate was complaining about it to one of her friends in our room, I burst out laughing. Which led her friend to also burst out laughing, which led to her getting huffy and angry and more laughter from everyone else. Ah yes.
Chocolate covered espresso beans are very delectable. But you can't eat them at night, because then you will be up very late. As I discovered Saturday night. But then I slept in on Sunday until 12, so all was well.
Another girl on my hall has had me design a tattoo for her. What is this? I am no tattoo artist. Yet apparently something of a reputation in that direction has started to take glutinous form. Creepy.
No reason for me to use the word 'glutinous' there, other than the fact that I like it. 'Tis a fine word.
Chemistry test on the morrow. It's only on two chapters, and I have about half of each chapter comprehended. I did hordes of studying last night, and I'll do lots more tonight, and hopefully I'll do better on this one than I did on the last one. *shudders in recollection*
Oh, and tomorrow is also my portfolio review for drawing. So I must put all my drawings in order and drag them up to North Campus around 3:00 tomorrow. Hopefully that will go well. I have literally no idea whatsoever what my grade in that class is, so I'm a wee tiddly bit nervous. But we shall see what we shall see.
Since drawing's over, that means that on Thursday I start the second half of that weird dual-class-single-semester thing. Digital. I heard that they make you do really easy things in Adobe Photoshop, which means I'll probably be bored, 'cause I've been using Photoshop since forever. That doesn't make any grammatical sense (since forever?), but you know what I mean. But then someone told me that you also do some work in Adobe Illustrator, which would be good, because I've never used that one.
i am down with photoshop like you wouldn't believe, man
How to tell that your roommate is drunk: She comes into the room at midnight and squeals, "FelineAnarchist, this song is so for yoooooou!" She then proceeds to blast 'If you were my girlfriend' at top volume, singing along and gesturing at you the entire time.
The best way to react to this is to shake your head grimly, retire to the top of your loft so you're as far away from her as possible, and return to your homework.
Had lunch today in Stockwell next door with Sarah, Elisa, Pam, Shelby, and Kevin. Notice that Sarah and Elisa are roommates, Pam and Shelby are roommates. Kevin's an RA so he has a single and doesn't count. Where is my roommate? Why do you never see her name in these lists of who I ate lunch and/or dinner with? Hmm-mmm. Consider, mes amis, consider.
Very sorry I didn't blog before this, I know I've been remiss in blogeration. But I was very ill, which made me bad-tempered, which meant that any blogging I would have done would just have been complaining about evil colds. I'm still sick, but by now it's receeded to the point where I can blog with a (relatively) clear mind.
Egads, I must trot. I have to find the School of Social Work building somehow or other. I know it's on South University somewhere, and I think it's near the East Quad dorm, but I've never laid eyes on the edifice, so this is going to be interesting.
I need to go there because my art class is going to a lecture on the socioeconomic effects of famine. Say what? This is related to art... how? Our next project in the class is supposed to have somevaguething to do with food, but socioeconomics is pushing it just a wee bit. We had a Scientific American article to read before the lecture, and I can guarantee you that a) only half my class actually read it and b) of that half, only a quarter actually understood it.
Yes. So. Need to find the School of Social Work. And even if, by some miracle of navigation I do, I need to find room 1794 in it. Not a-gonna happen. Alas.
Therefore I take my leave.
12:19 PM
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
First off, I believe it is necessary to say Choke on that, Yankees! Game 7, here we come!
I am so frelling sick. Horrible cold, the sort that just wipes you right out. Fell asleep in chemistry, until they blew up a balloon full of hydrochloric gas, which made a terrific noise and jolted me into wakefulness. They surely do enjoy blowing up balloons full of fun gases in that class.
So I feel exceedingly ick-some. Nose won't stop dripping, throat won't stop doing whatever variety of evil thing it's doing, brain won't stop falling asleep at odd times. That last might be a combination of fatigue and Sudafed, but it's hard to tell, because the Sudafed doesn't seem to be having any effect at all. Aargh.
I took some more pictures today, since my Human Being class was on a field trip to Kerrytown, which is this neat little sprawling marketplace in downtown Ann Arbor. I took them on the digital camera, though. Still haven't finished the roll that's in my hardware camera. I am a bad person. If you want to see pictures just let me know, they're on my computer.
Many meals next door at Stockwell today. I had lunch with Sarah and Elisa. Then I had dinner with Sarah, Elisa, Kevin, and Anne (the RA for my hall). Good times. I couldn't really taste any of the food, but my throat tends to hurt less when I'm actively eating, so I suppose it was a good thing.
Katy, a girl down the hall from me, got a tattoo over this past weekend. She was showing it to everyone today. Here it is.
that there is katy. and that there is her new tattoo.
OK, very nice, she got a tattoo. I wouldn't do it myself, but props to her. But there is a creepy aspect to this little tale.
I drew that tattoo.
She came in before the break and asked me if I could draw her a tattoo design of a rose around the woman symbol. Being an accomodating sort, I did so. I didn't think she'd actually use the thing.
But holy freaking cats, she did. So now I have my artwork on someone's body. And it's permanent. Certainly a first for me. Creeparific.
Possibly even creepier, though... she seems to really like it. *shakes head in disbelief*
Yup. Going to go work through another box of tissues. G'night.
9:00 PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Wow. There's too much to blog, so this is going to have to be selective. Sorry. I was lazy and didn't blog at all when I was home. For this I apologize. Profusely. But you know how it goes.
Sheesh, I have all the way back to, what, Thursday that I haven't written about yet? Holy cats. That's a lot of time. OK. Lessee. Thursday night was the guest artist lecture, as always. This (past) week was actually really good, because we had two people from Pixar. The Michigan Theater was packed, since all the art students were there, and tons of engineering kids showed up for this one too.
The speakers were a guy (who does sculptures of the characters) and a woman (who did the setting work on computers). The sculpture guy, before he went to Pixar, did sculpture work for Skellington and helped make Nightmare Before Christmas, which is a supremely glorious movie that I probably should see again, since I haven't seen it in years.
Friday we had a 'going home' lunch with all the people on my hall who were going home for the weekend. Yeah, it was just the usual lunch crew, but quoiever. I left for the airport at around 2:30.
The flight to Boston was pretty uneventful. There were four or five kids in the shuttle over, and one girl (Ashley) lives in Alice Lloyd (next door to me) and is from Andover, MA. She wasn't on my flight, because she was flying into some other airport... Manchester, I think. But our gates ended up being pretty close together, so we navigated the Detroit Metro airport together.
I didn't know anyone on my plane. I was sitting next to two small children who were compulsive gamblers. They bet on every little thing that happened. "I bet you $5 that the plane takes off from a stationary start." "I bet you $5 that man goes to the bathroom before the flight's half over." "I bet you $5 you're gonna spill your juice." They weren't too bad though, they left me alone.
Friday night I went to see Kill Bill with Maddie, Corey, and Noah. Massive good times. Yes, I am aware that we hyped ourselves up for that to a ridiculous point, but it did not disappoint. Which is quite rare in such a highly-anticipated movie. I don't think Noah was quite as obsessed as, say, me or Corey had gotten, and he seemed a little bemused by the whole thing.
Oh, it was so ironically funny, so subtly making fun of so many movies and so many conventions in said movies. The whole Japan sequence was visually ambrosial. The soundtrack is excellent... bizarre but oddly perfect. Some of the cinematography made me so frelling happy. I'm pretty sure I was giggling at inappropriate bits (at least, no one else in the theater was laughing at them), but that's OK, my mind works in unfathomable ways.
Our moviegoing experience was vastly enhanced by the crowd. People were reacting to everything onscreen very loudly. And, for some reason, the reactions were coming about a minute after something happened. Someone would get their arm cut off, and a minute later people would scream, "Nuh uh, she didn't!" And the like. Quite entertaining. Not sure why they all reacted so late, though, unless perhaps one considers the fact that we were at a late night showing, so our fellow movie viewers may have been drunk. Slows your reaction time, you know.
you thought that was uma thurman, but it ain't so, that there is mr. bruce lee. it is nerdy little references like this which make quentin tarantino so glorious.
We got back from the movie around 1 am. Of course, since I was home, and Noah was home, we just had to go stand outside and talk for hours. Musn't break with tradition. We discussed everything, as usual, from the social life at school to detailed reports of Noah's script-writing ideas to discussion of how very slightly weird everything at home looked now. Yes. Good times.
Saturday I did homework. Well, some homework. OK, not so much homework as I should have done. I sat around and spent quality time with my cats and read and just generally let my brain resolidify. Saturday night I went out to dinner with my family.
We went to Legal Sea Foods. The Red Sox game was on, of course, since that's such a quintessentially Boston restaurant. All the waiters were keeping one and a half eyes on the game at all times, and there were tons of people standing at the bar watching it. The restaurant patrons, of course, were all craning their necks to see the TV.
When Pedro dumped the elderly Don Zimmer onto the grass, the place erupted. It was glorious. Hystericality.
I got three new CDs this home weekend. Had to make use of my proximity to Newbury Comics, of course. There is no CD store to compare. Anywho. I got the self-titled CD by Ima Robot, A Jackknife to a Swan by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Radioactive by AM Radio. I greatly enjoy them all.
The Bosstones are the Bosstones, if you don't know their sound by now a) I can't really describe it to you and b) what crater have you been living in? Ima Robot is good, sort of like Spoon in a couple of their songs, sort of like Hot Hot Heat in some of them, pretty thoroughly technoed in most of them. AM Radio is splendid, I'm already well on my way to listening to that CD way too many consecutive times. A bit PaloAlto-ish at times, but while the PaloAlto CD is only really good for the first half, Radioactive is solid the whole way through.
Sunday night I went out to Asahi for Japanese dinner goodness with Maddie, Jess, and Corey. We had sushi, but I had vegetable sushi, 'cause I don't do the whole raw fish deal. Nor do I eat invertebrates. So shrimps were right out. The vegetable stuff was pretty good in any event, and although I made a monumental mess (I cannot eat sushi properly... all my instincts rebel against just shoving the whole thing in your mouth, but that's what you've got to do) it was scrumptious.
Then we ended up at Whitney's house (?) for a bit, before we went to Maddie's for pie and chatting. Lots of chatting. Very nice and very low key, very low drama, which is always crucial to my enjoyment of being in Swampscott. Certain people bring large amounts of drama with them, but none of them were present Sunday night, so all was well.
Monday I went to brother Eli's soccer game for a while. He had a couple of good plays, but they were playing Danvers, and Danvers has a very, very good soccer team. I left when it was 4-0 Danvers, because I couldn't take it any more. It ended up being 4-1, so I didn't miss too much.
Then shopping was done, and massive amounts of homework was done, and Red Sox watching was done, and all that jazz.
Today I communed with the cats all morning. I had a 2 pm flight. When I got to the airport, however, I was informed that it had been cancelled. Apparently the plane had some sort of mechanical issues, so it never even made it to Boston. Woe. I had to go home and then come back for a 6 pm flight. It was good because I got more feline time. But annoying.
The flight back was OK, I was sitting between two business people who didn't talk to me or each other. There was some nasty turbulence at the end, though, because there was heavy rain in Detroit and the clouds were very thick.
We spent a good amount of time flying through this one endless series of clouds that completely surrounded the plane. Outside the windows everything was this sickly shade of milky white, tinged a weird yellow at the bottom. It lit the interior of the plane very oddly and gave me a whanging big headache.
The shuttle home had two kids from New Jersey, one kid from Atlanta, and me. Me and the Atlanta kid had a spirited discussion about the Red Sox (he was a Braves fan, but he hates the Yankees, so all good there), while the New Jersey kids sat in front of us and muttered sullenly. After a while we all quieted down because it was late and we were zonked out (I know I was, in any event). The rain was torrential, and the shuttle driver was playing music very quietly.
So I'm sitting there in this van, back in Ann Arbor, heading back to my lovely little dorm room with my lovely little fellow occupant of said room, and it's pouring raink, and I'm wondering whether he's going to drop me off at the Mosher or the Jordan door, and how wet I'm likely to get going from the van to the door, and what I'm going to eat for a very late dinner, and right at the very edge of my consciousness, very, very low, I hear Ace of Base. I thought I was going insane.
I think that I am coming down with something. I'm not stuffy, but my throat feels horrid from post-nasal drip, and my nose is drippy. Aaaarrrrgh and such. Utter, utter, utter evil.
Right. Early morning class. Way past my weeknight bedtime. Off I go.
*edit: The net, she is buzzing over this guy Jack Chick, who has his own series of online comics called Chick's Tracts. They're very fanatically Christian, and they go on about how this and that is the Devil's work, and all good children can find salvation in Jesus. One which especially tickled me was this one about Dungeons and Dragons being a satanic cult.
Now, I'm the first to admit that hardcore D&D players creep me out, but that's because a lot of them are skeezy and even geekier than I am. Weird though they may be, I highly doubt that they are all Devil-ridden witches. Plus, check out this Chick guy's artwork. Just look at the blond girl's face in the 6th panel. C'mon, the worst artist in my drawing class could do better than that.
Yes, so check out these 'tracts' for a good laugh. The guy is certifiable, and yeah, lots of them are full of hate and prejudice and just plain old stupidity, but the key is to bear in mind that you just can't take this idiot seriously. I don't know how people like that can exist in real life.
11:52 PM
Thursday, October 09, 2003
SUCK ON THAT, YANKEES!
Oh lordy yes. Was that ever a lovely little bit of baseball gaming. And we actually managed to get a Red Sox watching crew together today. Me and Beth (the other Sox fan on my hall) managed to shanghai some other folks into Beth's room to watch the game. Lovely stuff.
I met a kid today in my dorm who's from Natick! Evidently he's in Brynn's english class (although not, I gather, particularly friends with her). Anywho, he was wearing a Red Sox jersey today, so I guess she mentioned to him that she had a roommate from Boston. He got very excited and came over before the game to meet me. Name of Adam. Very nice kid. We had a great hour-long chat about Red Sox, Patriots, 'pop' versus 'soda', and how evil it is that they don't have Stop and Shop here.
Have I mentioned Kevin before? I think I did. In any event. He's always in our hall because he's some sort of engineer-like genius so we make him fix all our technological woes. And then he became friends with most of us, so he hangs out in our hall a lot. But. I did not know. He is an RA. How, exactly, was I unaware of this? It is most wondrous strange. Great fellow though, and swears that he won't report any of us unless we play evil tricks on him.
Yes. But excellent Red Sox game. Very glorious. Good solid win. And in New York, too. Thusly improving the win vastly. Lot of 'ly's in that sentence. You adore it.
Musn't forget to print out boarding pass tomorrow. Must not forget. Print out boarding pass. Tomorrow. Today, actually. Cursed midnight. So sneaky.
The roommate is out. She is at a barn dance. She was asking around if anyone had a bandanna she might borrow. Eventually she asked me. So I lent her one. I went out to dinner. She was getting ready for the dance. I came back. She was dressed for the dance. She was wearing the bandanna. As. A. Shirt.
I plotzed in horror and mirth and ran to tell Pam and Kevin before I exploded with the sheer unbelievability of the sight. Kevin sagely pointed out that it was 'better as a shirt than a skirt'. To which I heartedly agreed.
It was 80º out today! Obscene! Unnatural! Heinous! And it's going to be in the high 70s tomorrow! I am royally pissed. I detest this weather. I should not have to deal with it any more. It is October. I have done my time, suffering in the non-air-conditioned horror of these dormrooms. No more, I say, no more!
Curiously, Michigan (or at least Ann Arbor) is suffering from a weird sort of ladybug infestation right now. I don't mean a few ladybugs. I mean that two days ago there was not a single ladybug to be found in this town. Now there are quite literally hundreds of thousands. You can see them zipping everywhichaway through the air when you're outside. They're on everything.
And they invaded my room.
I came back from class around 4:30 to discover my roommate cowering on her bed, whimpering, and gesturing feebly towards the drapes. I looked. The drapes were covered in ladybugs. Hideous numbers of ladybugs. They were all over the ceiling and light fixture too.
Because my roommate squealed every time one got near her, the unfortunate task of debugging the room fell, by default, to me.
The problem with ladybugs is that you can't just squish them and have done with it. Their major defense mechanism against being eaten by birds is that they secrete a yellowish goo that smells wicked nasty and tastes even worse (so I would assume). If you crush them, the goo is extruded and the nasty smell takes to the air. Vurry unpleasant.
Since I had several hundred (I only wish it were hyperbole) ladybugs to destroy, I managed to develop a very scientific and methodical means of extermination.
The answer, mes amis, as with so many things in life, is duct tape.
Take one good sized piece of duct tape. Remove from roll. Approah ladybugs. Press lightly, so that ladybug is caught on the duct tape by its wingcases, but not squished. Repeat several times, or until duct tape is full of ladybugs. Fold duct tape carefully with ladybugs inside. Crush into little packet of death. Place in trash.
It works. Any goo is stuck inside the duct tape, where it can't assault your olfactory nerves, and the bugs are as dead as wee little doornails.
I had a frelling lot of ladybugs to dispose of. It was not good times. But I think, after spending all of the night not spent watching the Red Sox in this activity, that I managed to get pretty much all of the little fuckers.
you think they are cute, but just get a look at that ugly, gangsta mug.
So, ladybugs=evil. You may not have thought of them as evil before, but you must revise your views. Still, I suppose that, as infestations go, it's not so bad. After all, it could have been, say, spiders, or centipedes, or wasps.
Doesn't mean it was a barrel of laughs. Just means that I acknowledge that it could have been worse.
There's also been an explosion in the chipmunk population within the last two days. I saw tons of 'em today. One ran over Sarah's foot on the way to lunch, causing both her and Pam to scream. Me and Shelby laughed. Good times. But I don't mind the chipmunks becoming more numerous, they're cute little buggers, and they stay out of my room.
Today an upperclassman on my hall named Katy, to whom I had spoken maybe three times, came by and asked me if I could design her a tattoo showing the woman symbol with a rose twined around it. Well. I'm a nice person. I did. She loved it. She went around telling everyone on the hall who would listen that she was going to put one of my drawings on her body. Which pretty soundly freaked the hell out of me, but there you are. I am too damn considerate for my own good.
I would scan in the design and show it to you, but my scanner, it doth not operate. So if I remember to bring a copy home those of you at home can maybe see it. At home. Or not. Quoiever.
I printed out a nice picture of Nomar today. It's going right next to my lovely little Photoshopped artwork featuring Jay Fiedler, Joey Harrington, and Tom Brady. Yes. Joy.
Rah-ther tired, and though I don't have to be out of the dorm tomorrow until 1, I should probably get up around 10. Just to be safe. I bid you all a good night.
12:21 AM
Monday, October 06, 2003
RED SOX WIN!!!
I was on the verge of tears at least five times. Every single time they showed the Johnny Damon crash I winced and cringed and said "Ouch!" That was one frelling nasty-looking hit. I really, really, really, really hope that he's OK.
When the Red Sox won I ran shrieking out into the hall to embrace Beth, the other Red Sox fan on my hall. We raced hugging and screaming up and down the hall, thus blatantly violating 'quiet hours', and causing every other person in our hall to come to their doors to see what the hell was going on. Thankfully, our RA was not there. She never is, but in this instance it was a good thing.
I was talking to Leslie for the last bit of the game, and we were obscenely excited together. When they won I called Jess and Stephanie, and Tufts sounded like it was going utterly insane. Screaming and incoherent speech and the like. Corey said that even the non-sportistically-inclined MassArt had erupted in jubilant cheers. Chris said that he was going out to try and find a riot.
Now my throat hurts from all the screaming but it is *OK*. Because I am *deliriously happy*. And we are playing the *Yankees* later in the week. Homework be damned. I am watching the frelling Yankees/Sox game.
nomar hits a homer in the sept. 6 11-0 win over the yankees. hopefully to be repeated later this week.
Yes. Extreme joy.
Today was Yom Kippur, which meant no eating or drinking of anything the whole day long. It was OK until the end, when I started to get kind of faint, more from the not-drinking-even-water deal, rather than the food. But I went to all of my classes today, irregardless of fasting. My roommate spent the entire day sleeping (she was still asleep when I left for my afternoon class at 1pm). I rather think that I did more atonement than she did, the lazy git.
After classes, to take my mind off of things before the sun went down, Pam drove me to Meijers. This is apparently a huge deal in Michigan and when she heard that I had never been before, she was appalled. So I just had to be taken there to see what it was all about.
It had been described to me as a sort of 'massive Walmart'. Which I guess it is. It was actually pretty fun, I felt like I hadn't been in a car for ages, although I had been when I went to Southfield for Rosh Hashana. But I guess I hadn't been in a car driven by a friend (or myself) for quite a while. I bought some things which I needed in the way of foodstuffs and tissues. And we ran around this vast store just generally having a rollicking good time.
Break fast was chinese food and then, because I was, of course, still hungry, goldfish in the dorm. And candy. Lovely candy. Chocolate UFO thingies that dear mother remembered I liked, and those candy corn pumpkin things, which are dangerously good.
I had tons of reading about Dadaism tonight, which was boring yet also funny. The book, talking about World War I, said '[however many] were killed, wounded, or missing (i.e. blown to bits).' I laughed. 'Missing' automatically means 'blown to bits'? I did not know this. Oh art history, you make my world so strange.
And off I trot.
11:39 PM
Sunday, October 05, 2003
Much funniness coming to you courtesy of the inimitable ScaryDuck, who alerted the world to it.
It's a whole slew of joyous animations for kids of all ages! They're called The Happy Tree Friends and you should all go to the site and see the animations right now! NOTE: Animations actually not appropriate for children at all. They will be scarred for life.
These little gems are beautifully animated, and the characters are charming. The music is annoying and funny and will get stuck in your head so badly that you'll want to shriek and tear out your own hair. The fact that every episode ends in gruesome bloodshed didn't stop me from laughing hysterically at 2 o'clock in the morning and worrying my hallmates!
I especially like Splendid the flying squirrel because he has a cool mask, and also Flippy the bear war veteran who is prone to violent flashbacks. But so charming! I love it!
I also laughed out loud at the little beginning animation that's on some of the episodes involving all of the characters in one of those stuffed-animal-claw-vending-machine things. Oh, how I laughed.
So go see The Happy Tree Friends, unless, of course, you haven't got much stomach for blood and guts and gore and violence. But with pretty colors! And happy music! And the sounds of children laughing!
la la la, la la la la. la la la, la la la la.
Ha HA! And I skip off to bed.
2:24 AM
Saturday, October 04, 2003
Argle. It's 2:20 am and I've just staggered in from a night of debauchery on North Campus. I kid, I kid. But I was on North Campus. Very tired but I don't feel like going to bed just yet. Which of course means I'll go to sleep unspeakably late (as if it isn't already) and then be utterly useless tomorrow. Which is bad. Because I have a lot of work to do.
Ay, darn it all. No idea why I'm blogging right now, other than the fact that I can't do art (my drawing gets unpardonably sloppy at this level of tiredness) and I can't think of anything else to do. This will probably be incoherent in the morning, but I'll probably let it stand because I'm generally too lazy to remove it. Sorry about that in advance.
Put up some pictures today. In my room, not on the blog. I just hope that masking tape doesn't take the finish off these lovely drawers, because then I would have made quite a mess of things.
Mortimer seems to be doing well. I should probably give him some water this coming week. I'm a little bit worried about his sun intake, though. It hasn't been particularly sunny here lately. I hope he's getting enough.
Tomorrow. Shopping which needs to be done. Homework. Lots and lots of homework. Should do some chemistry, and I've a vast drawing that needs doing. Sigh. Michigan is away at Iowa, of all evilness, so I shall have to resort to TV watching. 3:30 on ABC, for those in the area. Dolphins are playing the Giants, but I doubt they'll be on here. Well. Maybe. I should look around.
Lions playing 49ers on Sunday, 4:15 on Fox for those hereabouts. Only two people on my hall ever watch the games... me, and Beth from across the way. Whenever the Lions make a particularly good or bad play we scream at each other from across the hall. We don't watch in the same room because I'm usually doing homework while watching the game. As I will be this Sunday. Out of necessity.
Maybe I should go to that big Starbucks with a sketchbook at some point this weekend. That would be good times. Yes. Idea. And it's written down here, so I won't forget later.
There's a pipe in our hall bathroom which rattles and bangs. It does it with a weird sort of complex rhythm, though. People who aren't from our hall and, therefore, aren't used to it often think there's some drummer guy sitting somewhere outside the window, drumming away. But it's just the pipes.
Dorkily enough, it never fails to make me think of the ghoul in the attic pipes of the Weasely house. Yes. I need to stop thinking things like that. *whacks self over head for being dork*
found this concept sketch for the set of the weasely house on the grand interweb. was going to post a picture of ron, but remembered in time that kid they've got playing him always made me want to smack his silly, noncomprehending little face. yes. late night.
Did a marker doodle the other day. Took the proportion/posture from a drawing I had done in class, so it would be accurate, but did it all over in crazy layered color. I vacillate between really liking it and utterly loathing it. I'd scan it in so you can see but my scanner does not seem to be working, so that's right out.
I like to think that there are other people out there who, when they get really tired and incoherent and insane, use the word 'vacillate' in their speech. Because, you see, I do.
Miss my kitties. Curses be unto Kate, who's home this weekend. I can't make it through another week. Blasted loads of work. Still haven't got my grade for the chemistry test back, I've been checking coursetools (I'd explain what that is but it's late) almost impulsively, but I guess they're not going to post the grades on there. Not sure if I really want to know what I got, but I figure that all knowledge is enlightening in one way or another and not knowing is, in this case, probably worse.
I need to recharge my iPod.
I've gotten more use out of that insane bag of tools the art school gave us at the beginning of the year than I ever thought I would without a single wood or metal class on my plate. I've already used all the heavy duty wirecutters, both the vises, one of the wrenches, the metal ruler, the exacto knife, the hammer, some sort of superduty boxcutter blade, the paint pen, the saw, two of the many metal file things, and some of the bandaids. Terribly thoughtful of them, to give us a bag of heavyduty hardcore tools and include so heavyduty bandaids.
Roommate just stumbled in, certainly looking no worse for the wear than I do. I make the time out to be... 2:45. am. Early, for her, on a Friday night.
Need to get more Power/Luna bar things for the days I have morning classes. I hadn't touched those things until this year, but they're rapidly becoming indispensible. And Jess's Tufts Nalgene bottle, other than it's infinitely amusing uses as a device of Confusion, has been dragged nearly everywhere on campus by yours truly, keeping me super-triple-wonderously hydrated, to an almost Noah-like extent. Except, having the Nalgeninator, I don't leave trails of mostly empty water bottles everywhere. Which Noah does. Did. No idea if he does it at school.
Something in my brain says that last paragraph was really rambling and weird but other things tell me to move on and stop thinking about it, and this is the route I am inclined to take.
Need to pick up some Bristol board, and some black and white acrylic paint. Do that when I go to Starbucks. Right near each other. The two places. Starbucks and the bookstore I'm gonna get the supplies at. Yes. Make coherent sentences. Good.
Today I had sandwichy goodness for lunch with Heather from classes. We had food from the deli-like thing at Pierpont Commons on North Campus, and coffee from the coffee place next to it. I was just going to heat up something mildly nutritious in the dorm for dinner but Sarah and Elisa came storming by and I got swept next door to Stockwell to eat with them and discuss the wearing of small scarves. Among other things. It was pizza night, so I actually had something other than salad. The pizza wasn't great but it wasn't bad either.
Tell the one about the silver spoon that I won't understand.
The guest artist speaker last night was unspeakably boring. Micheal Palmer. Some sort of poet. He couldn't give a speech to save his robot, phlegmy voice. Did I spell that right? I know not. Onwards. He used the word 'telegraphic' at least 15 times, as in, "We don't have much time so I'll be telegraphic about this..." which was very annoying.
I wasn't taking notes, of course, because I never do, because it's useless. But I did have my notebook out and I was diligently doodling in it. When he started speaking I wrote in large letters "Oh my lord he is a *horrible* speaker!" Then I doodled all about. About halfway through the lecture a guy sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked to borrow my pen. Having no particularly pressing need for it, I let him do so.
About a minute later he tapped me on the shoulder again to give me back my pen. He also held out a piece of paper, which was what he had needed the pen for. On it he had written:
1. I agree. He is a horrible speaker.
2. Really good drawings.
I smiled and said, "Yes, and thank you." and was made all happy and whatnot. At least my doodlings were keeping someone other than me occupied.
Late at night they stop running the regular buses to and from North Campus. They run wee little old people/special education minibuses. The lecture was late, so we had to take one of these wee buses back to Central Campus. It was so weird. It went into all the parking lots in the hospital complex and circled around and got back onto the road. No one had any idea what was going on. Creepy yet also funny.
I really should stop this post before it gets too long and weird. If it isn't already.
Watched a snarfload of movie trailers today as a break after dinner, while doing homework, before I went out. The Triplets of Belleville is some animated movie that looks like it has potential. Also new Pixar movie called The Incredibles, but it was really only a teaser trailer. There are two people coming from Pixar for one of our guest artist lectures and that one is going to be packed because not only are all the art students wicked excited about it, I hear tell that a ton of engineering kids are going to go as well.
Have you seen the Fatboy Slim video for the song Weapon of Choice? The one where Christopher Walken dances in a hotel. It's awesome. Anyways, someone made an animation of it but using a stick figure! It's frelling incredible. Utter lovely animation. Stick Figure Weapon of Choice is what I would call it if I were tired and uncreative and had naming priviledges.
If you want to see the original to compare it to the anim and thusly appreciate how glorious the animation truly is, you can check it out here. You have to download it, sorry, I'd check around for one you don't but it's now a little after 3 am and I should probably go to bed.
Yes. To bed I go. Ago. Hooooo. Again apologies for the evil strange not able to be understood blog. Yes. Happens, late at night. Yes. Bed.
2:16 AM
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
I got up bright and early this morning and went to class. When I got back, my roommate was still asleep. Now that's depressing.
Last night was my first chemistry exam of the year. We had had a number of quizzes, but this was the first test. I've no idea whatsoever how I did. I might have done OK, I might have bombed it. I forgot the formulas of permanganate and acetic acid, which is not good, but we shall see what we shall see.
As a side note, I don't think that I much like having night tests. It was just odd to be going to take a test when it was dark out. I felt like I should be going to muck about on the diag, not going to my chemistry-oriented doom.
I then spent the rest of the night working on my manifesto. It was supposed to be a big ol' DNA model made out of wooden dowels and clay. The dowels with their little pull-down sheets of information were done. I had the clay all ready to go. It was molded and I had it taped to the legs of my chair so that it would dry in the right shape. I got back from class around 6:15ish, bolted some dinner, studied a little, and went to my chemistry exam.
I get back from chemistry around 9:30 in the pm. I walk into my room and stand in horrified discovery. The clay is all cracked, smashed, and broken. Let's not even get into the theories of how and/or why. It's already too dry to reshape. The bookstores are closed so I can't get more. It is due the next day. I think I started hyperventilating.
Hell, I know I started hyperventilating.
To make a very long night short, I happened to have some metal mesh stuff in my room. The fact that it was there at all was the merest incidence of chance... I had picked it up the last time I was in the bookstore because I thought I might need it to reinforce the clay a little. Being my usual insane self, I had bought more of it than I thought I would need. Thank cats for my over-diligence. It's the only thing that saved me.
I made the frelling manifesto. I spent pretty much the entire night cutting up wire and, consequently, my hands. My fingers have tons of maddeningly little scratches all over them now. Ouchness. It looks like utter shite, and it will undoubtedly fall to bits as I try to get it to North Campus, but I got the damn thing done, even though all the fates were aligned against me and my completion of this particular project. Hercules himself could not have done more.
nope, it's not just the photos. it really does look that bad.
Oh, and just to add insult to injury, we have to dress up to present the damn things. I frelling hate getting dressed up.
Today in chemistry we learned that overfed babies emit hydrogen from their plump little posteriors. Our professor, whose research projects revolve around harnessing and utilizing hydrogen, thinks that we should use the babies to generate hydrogen for hydrogen-driven vehicles, since good hydrogen is otherwise hard to come by.
I was forcibly reminded of the Book o' Timers and the babies searching out pennies and blood with their magnificent senses of smell and taste. Oh, and the edible babies. Musn't forget them. The fact that my chemistry teacher occasionally has so much in common with that particular Swampscott (and Nahant, 'cause of Corey) crew both terrifies and delights me.
I still can't figure out where he's from, though. His accent is deucedly hard to place. He says things like 'petrol' and 'bloody' and 'you'll be very happy and jolly but then you'll keel over and you're DEAD' (discussing carbon monoxide), but he's definitely some vague sort of middle eastern. Random words get weird pronunciations... 'cumulative' is 'cue-mill-uh-tiv' and 'iron' is 'eye-run'. I dunno, I just wonders, I does. Full o' curiosity, me. It's the Feline Within.
Today the demonstration involved the always classic freezing-things-with-liquid-nitrogen experiments. The assistant, Ed, froze a raquetball and smashed it to bits on the floor. Professor Yaghi got terribly excited about this. There was another ball which Ed used to show us that, when unfrozen, it bounced normally. Our professor, after we had seen one shatter, eagerly said, "Oh I love that one. Can you do the other ball? But maybe throw it against the wall, yes?" He looked like a little kid. It was funny.
Ed also brought in a balloon full of hydrogen. Prof. Yaghi eyed it warily before asking, "Are you going to explode that?" Which amused the class. And yes, he did blow it up. We had already done it before, but apparently it seemed like a fun thing to do again.
Hum. Yup. Still dislike the subject of chemistry, but enjoy the class probably more than I should. If I had a bad or boring teacher I would be in the deepest pits of Hades.
Must go consume some comestibles. Until the next, cher reader, until the next.
10:55 AM
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