laceblade

On Thursday, I had my car towed through AAA. The mechanics who looked at it replaced both the alternator and the battery. It was expensive, but the alternator now has a lifetime guarantee. This is comforting to me, because, knowing my luck, it will break again next week.

At my college, majors are referred to as "majors," but minors are referred to as "certificates." When I graduate, I will have two certificates: European Studies and Global Cultures. In order to complete my Global Cultures certificate, I must take a Capstone seminar class that is meant to bring together all of my experiences studying global cultures. Unfortunately, I am one of probably only 2-3 people in the class who have never studied abroad, or spent a significant amount of time in another country. Studying abroad is cool, but it is not a requirement to be in the class, and thus far, I've been mildly annoyed that every question we're asked relates to "our experiences being abroad." That said, we have to present to the class a presentation, which will morph into a 15-18 page paper by the end of the semester. Nearly everyone will be presenting on their study abroad experiences. After class, I spoke with the professor about what I should do, having no study abroad experience. He assured me that analyzing media portrayals of other cultures, and learning about other cultures through media would be okay. DOES THIS MEAN THAT I CAN MAKE A PRESENTATION ABOUT MANGA? I THINK IT DOES. *cackles* OMG, maybe I could do gender representations in manga!! I will think of something amazing, I tell you what.

Angel
I don't know how I managed to tear myself away from Buffy, given its current DRAMA, but my goal was to alternate between Buffy and Angel, and that's what I've been doing. I'm not entirely sure how Angel is going to be capable of being very consoling, given his current state. Also, my love for Wesley expands by millions.

ALSO, PS: MY FRIEND FROM HIGH SCHOOL HAS MET A BUFFY ACTOR! But you can only know who if you've seen through season 5 of Buffy. It is here! And don't click the link, DAVE.

The Terminator
I was rather exhausted yesterday, so rather than going ballroom dancing for an hour with Nina and John (and Antoine!), Antoine and I ordered Chinese take-out food with Chad and watched "The Terminator." I think I've seen random clips of the Terminator movies during my life, but I haven't yet seen them as a whole. I rather liked it, although I obviously liked the character Sarah Connor a lot more at the end of the movie than I did in the beginning ("On your feet, soldier!"). I'm looking forward to the second movie. The reason I'm choosing to watch these movies now is because I would like to watch the new TV series.
coffeeandink on the first movie here
paralleactic also on the first movie here


The Presidential Race
I liked John Edwards a lot in 2004. And I hadn't realized how glad I was that he was in this race until he had dropped out. I do feel a bit glad that I hadn't thrown myself into hoping whole-heartedly for Edwards or Gravel or etc. - Primaries weed people out, and I just figured I would wait until the pool was a bit thinner, so as not to get crushed. And now that my choice is down to Clinton and Obama, my choice is easy. If Hilary Clinton were to win and remain in office for 4 years, then, when I am 26, my entire life since the age of 3 will have had a Bush or a Clinton in the presidential office. To me, that is extremely unsettling. I'm not going to launch into a diatribe of why I'm voting for Obama, or why you should too (at least, not yet). For now, I will simply say that it's been a while since we had a great orator in office. How cool would it be to have a president whose mode of speech was so rhythmic that you can literally set it to music?

Still, I must say that I'm not a fan of pulling everyone out of Iraq immediately. Also not a fan of the war in general. But still - doesn't seem like the best option right now.