laceblade

I don't have anything particularly insightful to say about the Buffy comics, so I'll just note my random observations.

I have read through the first issue of "Wolves at the Gate." I know some spoilers, sort of, but just to be safe, please don't comment with any spoilers.

( Spoilers for 6-12 lie behind the cut! )

Current Music: Some ghost-hunting show on A&E. My father demanded that I turn off the Angel DVDs (but not before watching gratuitous naked!Spike with me), turned this on, and promptly fell asleep.

I wish my mom still did my homework.
I wish I still did your mom.
I wish your mom still did me.

I can't write; instead, I will sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be really interesting. I just hope I don't have to stay up all night to finish this paper, because my boss is having a work party at his house Friday evening, and I don't want to fall asleep in the middle of it.

Note to self tomorrow, when you're checking your LiveJournal/blog instead of working on the paper:
Treat the paper like multiple blog posts on comics and manga, and gender. Then link the "posts" with transitions and such. It's a reflection paper, not an English paper with in-text parenthetical citations. Relax.

Natalie Portman is going to play Catherine Earnshaw in a new movie version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. While I'm glad that there won't be 8,000,000 more remakes of Jane Austen novels in the near future and people have realized that other women were writing great stuff in the 19th century, I'm not sure how much I'll like Portman as Cathy. I've liked her in everything I've seen her in thus far, though, so I guess I'll give it a try when it comes out.

There is an awesome article in the New York Times about depressed writers.

With all our scans and neurotransmitters, we are not much closer to figuring out that relationship than was Lord Byron, who announced that poets are “all crazy” and left it at that. But effective drugs make the question more urgent now: would Virginia Woolf, medicated, have survived to write her final masterpiece, or would she have spent her extra years happily shopping?

...

As for the central question of whether treating the illness impairs the creativity, Ms. Hornbacher weighs in firmly on the side of her meds, imperfect though they may be. “For me, the first sign of oncoming madness is that I’m unable to write.” Depression silences her; mania may flood her mind with glittering words, but they scatter before she can get them down.

...

While mental illness may form a part of the creative cycle, if untreated its own cycles invariably take over. “Depression steals the voice,” writes Liza Porter. “Silence breeds depression. Depression breeds silence.”

I find this interesting. For me, when I'm feeling down, everything else gets stripped away except for words, which I am more likely to write down then than when I am happy and preoccupied.

Tomorrow morning, I have a Ballroom Dance practical exam, which I'm a bit afraid of, as I missed the day of practice on Monday. I opted to miss that over 3 power lectures, though, so hopefully it'll work out okay. As for the paper due Friday, I haven't written much yet, but there is more to my presentation notes than I thought there was. The nice part about this paper (sort of?) is that the professor has really given absolutely no direction, and it seems like it's supposed to mostly be personal reflection (seeing as most of the class is reflecting on their study abroad experience). I think that that will make things much easier. Still attempting to read like mad so that I can include info on as much manga as possible.

I need to figure out how to get a hold of the last volume of Vaughan's Y: The Last Man.

I now have a birthday present for Amelia, changed oil in my car, and my paycheck in my savings account.

The trip to the library was also fruitful, even if my mom watched with slow horror as I checked out 17 volumes of manga (BWAHAHAHA!).

I checked them out in the name of research. Even though my paper is supposed to focus on things already discussed in my presentation (given in February), I figure I might need a few more series in order to bring my page-count up to where it's supposed to be. Thus, what I checked out:
--Bisco Hitori's Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 2 (I've seen the entire anime series and loved it, but just want to double-check that the anime is close enough to the manga that I can cite it without actually reading it!)
--Tomoko Ninomiya's Nodame Cantable, vols. 1 and 2 (Have already read these, and watched ~7 episodes of the anime; just want a refresher because I didn't write about it in my blog very much.)
--Yukie Nasu's Here is Greenwood, vols. 1 and 2 (Haven't read any of this, but it's a pretty classic shoujo series, so I want to see if there's anything I can talk about from the basic premise.)
--Chie Shinohara's Red River, vols. 1 and 2 (Same reasons as Here is Greenwood)
--CLAMP's RG Veda, vols. 1-10 (BWAHAHA. I own volumes 1 and 2, and my goal is to read everything by CLAMP....ever. The Madison library doesn't have anything past volume 2, so I'm going to try my damndest to read all of it before the weekend's over. Since it's CLAMP, though, I think that I will have things to say about their representation of gender, which bodes well for my paper!)

So! Aside from visiting my family, I think that the weekend will be spent reading manga and taking notes. I'm okay with that.

You must forgive me for spamming LiveJournal. I have things to say, and am definitely not going to be productive tonight.

I was up until 4:00am last night working on my Constitutional Law midterm. It's so weird for me to be up late the night before everything is due, because I don't think I've ever habitually done that before. But that's been three projects in a row, :( I guess it's definitely a case of senioritis. When I think about how amazing it will be to done with homework for forever, I can't even describe the feeling of elation that I get.

For now, I guess I just continue being a bad student. I'm not sure how the midterm went because I refuse to reread my paper. It'll just make me feel terrible. I spent discussion section half-cringing, because every point made forced me to wonder whether my exam answers had contradicted what they should have said.

I didn't feel too affected by my lack of sleep today, although I was exceedingly grateful for my last class being randomly canceled. I got groceries! And I'm thinking my brain moves a bit faster than normal when not well-rested.

A recap of Battlestar Galactica, seasons 1-3. Obviously, there be spoilers! It's a pretty hilarious recap, though. Oh, Battlestar. I wish you could always be as awesome as you sometimes are.

Brett Favre retired today. My mom left a voicemail with me at like, 9am. My Constitutional Law TA said that when he received a call on his cell phone this morning, he knew that either two things had happened: one of his parents was dead, or Brett Favre had retired. I love Wisconsin.

Today, I thought to myself, "Self, maybe you should blog today, and tell the world how you're doing."

Right. Was at home, spent time with family, as well as Kristy and Ryan, who were home. Blahblah, so good to see people at church and at home, happy fun-time, everything was so amazing, etc.

After work today, I go outside to move car to proper side of street. After scraping the windshield with the hand-scraper to get some ice off, I get inside the car to turn on the automatic windshield wipers to deal with random flaky snow. Apparently, there was too much ice for this, and one of the windshield wipers breaks, as in, snaps in half. Can that even happen? I don't know, it did.

At this point, within the month, one day I will turn on the ignition key, and my car will blow up.

Let's review.
~The alternator and battery needed to be replaced, and in order for that to happen, I had to get my car towed.
~I lost my keys, and had to get a new set made. By riding to two different dealerships on the bus because the dealership people are "unable" to tell me by phone if they are capable of making the necessary keys.
~Someone hit my car while it was parked in a legal place on a wide street and didn't leave their contact information.
~I received two alternate-side parking tickets because Chad and I had a really hard time figuring out which sides of the street are even and odd. Don't judge us. We are special.
~AND NOW: Broken windshield wiper.

Winter has been taxing not only on me, but also on my car.

Anyway, it's time to take a short break from life (dinner and 1 episode of Angel) and then spend the rest of the night writing my Con Law midterm. Once that's over, I might be a normal person again for a couple of weeks. Maybe.

( Spoilers through episode 6.5 of Buffy )

Fail
I think that last semester ruined me for responsible project habits. Last semester, papers and exams and projects were scheduled in such a way that everything was always one right after the other, and it was nigh on impossible for me to start anything more than 2 days before it was due. My grades turned out fine, but I'm just used to starting a paper more in advance.

The habits seem to have carried over to this semester, even though I have more time, and things are more spaced out (except for this week, WTF!). Last night I fell asleep around midnight and woke up at 2am, wrote a 4-page paper, and went to bed again at 3:30. Woke up at 6:45 for the day. Over breakfast, I decided it would be a good idea to cite the text, as it was an English paper (BWAHAHA).

Anyway, the paper is done and will be handed in during my next class. After that, I have a ballroom dance practical on Monday (on the Waltz) and my Constitutional Law midterm due Tuesday. After that, I just have one exam before Spring Break, so I guess that's good.

Win
Yes, this means that I only have one episode before the Buffy musical, so hopefully I can watch both of those this weekend. SO EXCITED, omg. Then I can finally download the songs without fear of minor spoilers, and listen to them repeatedly forever.

I have decided what my Buffy icon needs to be. Buffy, looking feisty, preferably shaking a finger in a scolding way. Text: "You are a neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker!"

Latest Addition to my car woes
$20 parking ticket because I didn't move my car to the other side of the street last night. I thought I only had to do that during a snow emergency, but APPARENTLY I WAS WRONG. At least it's only $20 and I can pay it online (I hope).

Links
By way of

yhlee, I read this article on Slate.com explaining how Digg and Wikipedia are websites in which a small minority of Internet-users are deciding the content and popularity of the Internet as a whole. It's an interesting read. I use Wikipedia all the time because it's much more useful for things like Final Fantasy VII or the latest anime series than, say, Encyclopedia Britannica would be. I fail to understand the use of websites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Del.icio.us. I really don't give a shit how many other people have read and liked a page on the Internet. All I care about is whether or not I will like it. If I want to find something random, I'll go to Fark.com (Best news site EVER).

I am in love with this blog post by Ann Althouse: Obama, Farrakhan, and how Hillary Clinton took the opening and then squandered it. In the post, she dissects the rhetoric behind Tim Russert's question to Obama about Farrakhan in Tuesday night's debate, and how Hillary almost totally owned him, and then didn't. I feel like this is going to be a defining moment if she loses to Obama. Obama gives the wrong answer to a serious question, Hillary watches him shoot himself in the foot and makes herself look much stronger....until she backs off, Obama turns her point into a joke, and instead of arguing further, everyone has a good laugh, including the audience, the candidates, and the moderators. And Obama scores hugely.

SlateV had a video up on its main page last night pointing out the similarities between Barack Obama and this year's presidential campaign, and the one shown on The West Wing in its final seasons. Apparently, fictional character Matthew Santos was based on Barack Obama to begin with, although other similarities (fighting an entrenched Democrat; a moderate Republican, etc.) are obviously coincidental.

It's weird, but I think that I open my post-writing window in LiveJournal or Blogger depending on my mood. Maybe I should keep track of which interface equates with which moods.

Moods. I feel a mix of many things tonight. I'm going home this weekend, to visit my family. I think it's been nearly two months since I've been home, which is kind of a lot for me.

I have a paper that I should have worked on tonight, but didn't. Now I will have both a paper and a take-home midterm to be worrying about at the same time, until the paper is handed in Thursday and I am left with just the take-home midterm.

Job-searching is progressing. I'll be doing a phone interview sometime this week. Am still looking for places to submit applications, though.

Actually, since it's halfway through Lent now, maybe I should see how well I'm doing at my Lenten goals*:

1) Make my bed every morning. I know this sounds like a stupid goal, but I wanted at least one achievable one. It's been going well, :)

2) Clean my room every week. It took a while - the first two weeks, I'd put some things away, like clean/dirty laundry, and put books in piles. But it wasn't until yesterday that I actually put everything away and swiffered, dusted, and vacuumed. Hopefully now, I will stay on track.

3) Write sometimes. I haven't really done much with this at all. I did download a text editor that I played around with, organizing some Ghost Hunters notes and scenes. Still, I wish there was something like Scrivener for PC. So basically, this goal has not been "going" at all. :(

4) Do at least one thing every day to further your job search. I had been beginning to drag my feet, so I wanted to make this a priority, and it's going well. My resumes are finished, I've met with career advisers, and attended the Career Expo. I've applied to two jobs. I will do more!

5) Make an effort to only spend time on the Internet if you have an actual purpose. You spend too much time online. Use the extra time for homework, job-searching, reading, socializing, etc. Ummm....I would say I've been better than I was before, but not by much. This area also needs work.

* For those who aren't Catholic, Lenten "fasting" doesn't necessarily have to mean, "I'm giving up soda for Lent this year." The goal is to pay attention to an area in your life that needs work, and with improvement will bring you closer to God. Making better choices about eating habits tends to be a popular Lenten promise, which is cool. I don't find anything particularly wrong about my eating habits, and I don't drink coffee or much soda, so there isn't really an easy thing to pick out. Thus, I tend to go for goals instead.

I'm feeling restless and angsty tonight, so I probably shouldn't say much else. Will read something comforting before bed, after typing a bit about Angel.

( Spoilers through most of disc 2 of Angel, season 3 )

And, randomly....OMG! Wiscon panel descriptions are posted. Have you guys signed up for Wiscon yet? DO IT. BEST DECISION I EVER MADE.

Current Music: You Raise Me Up - Lena Park - Inori (Romeo x Juliet OP)

I am an excellent bus-navigator
After dance class, I set out to myself some new car keys.

I took the bus to a car dealership by the West Transfer Point. This dealership could not make me my key (no dealership would answer this question over the phone, for reasons I cannot begin to understand). Thus, my first bus route has been for naught.
That was bus ride #1.

I got myself to the second car dealership okay Luckily, this car dealership was able to make the correct ignition key for my car. With the key in hand, I set off up the street. Perhaps it helps to paint a picture: I am dressed nicely for work, in tights and a dress. Because the streets and sidewalks are full of ice and slush, I am wearing leather shoe-boots, with my nice black shoes inside my backpack. Because it is cold out, I am wearing a sweater, large mittens, a scarf, and a coat over my dress.
That was bus ride #2.

With the key safe in my backpack, I walked a number of blocks and picked up lunch at Subway, and got on another bus. I finally arrived at work around 2pm, only 2.5 hours late, which I think is pretty damn good, considering I rode around half the city.
That was bus ride #3.

Of course, these maps do not show my bus rides from my house to campus, or from the Capitol to my house (it being the internets and all!). But I rode the bus for many hours on Wednesday. Needless to say, I am very happy to have my car keys again. My car did not get a ticket for being parked on the street, so that was another plus.

BWAHAHAHA
Wednesday night, I fell asleep at like, 10pm or something ridiculous, and didn't wake up until 5:15am or something. Thus, Thursday was spent hurriedly preparing my presentation that I gave today, for my Global Cultures seminar. I mentioned this before - it's the class in which everyone has studied abroad, and I did my presentation on representations of gender in U.S. comics versus Japanese manga. I was a bit nervous, and some of my co-workers assured me that, were they my classmates, they would make fun of me for the entire presentation. However, this was not the case. In fact, at one point, my professor asked me if I knew any Japanese. I said, "Well, I've watched so much anime that there are a number of phrases that I could say. I know that makes me sound like a huge loser---" and like, 3 girls were shaking their heads, and said, "Oh, no! You're not!" BWAHAHA. Anyway. So I got to show everyone pictures of Sailor Moon and Nausicaa, as well as Batman and Yorick Brown. A good day's work, in the end.

My professor told me that I had done a good job, despite my feeling inadequate over never having studying abroad. And two of my classmates were asking me questions after class. One of them told me that I had done a really good job, and she liked it a lot. I was feeling so awesome that I realized that this is one thing I don't get enough of, by attending a huge university: affirmation.

WHAT NOW?
I feel like a huge weight has been taken off of my shoulders, now that my presentation is finished. Still, I have an English paper to work on that's due next Thursday, and my Constitutional Law midterm gets handed out on Tuesday. I'd also like to go home for a weekend (maybe next weekend!), not to mention cleaning my room, and spending more than 20 minutes with my boyfriend.

Two of my friends and I have to go out to some dance concert this weekend (tonight?!), because even though my Ballroom Dance class is only 1 credit, there are a number of extra curricular events we must attend, lest we fail the class. I personally think that this is stupid, and a ploy for the Dance Department to get my money (because, you know, I'm not already paying to take this course!). Also, what the hell! My weekends: I want them.

In the end, I can usually balance work, college, and a social life. But every time it comes down to it, this job-finding business is what I end up setting aside. I need to do a better job at it. One of my Lenten goals is to do at least one thing every day that is related to my finding a job. I need to do much better at it, although my "weekly room-cleaning" goal also needs significant work.

I think that what all of this means is that I need to get off of the Internet.

So I have been doing more than just reading manga, watching anime, and watching Buffy/Angel, I promise. I just decided to catch up on stuff I had finished a while ago. I think all that's left at the moment is to write about the end of Elfen Lied (it got better, sort of) and how Code Geass is going (awesomely!).

Friday night, I went to The City (a bar) with co-workers to celebrate one of their birthdays. I only had two drinks, but the strawberry martini was hella high alcohol content, I think. I danced, I said snarky things, and I was vigilant against creepy bastards, on behalf of my friends. This means that it was a typical bar night, I suppose, but in honor of my friend, we kept playing Michael Jackson songs (they had a digital juke box) and totally busting it out in our corner of the bar. Amazing! I hadn't thought that I was very inebriated, until Chad drove me, Antoine, and a friend home (best roommate EVER!), and I tried to get out of the car. Holy crap! Getting out of the car was difficult. I didn't fall or anything, but it was more like, "Foot. Lift it. Move it. Put weight on it." Probably the most amusing part of the night was someone accusing me of being drunk, me saying, "I am not drunk, damn it!" and immediately afterward, Antoine bumping my hip with his (he was dancing), and me almost falling over.

On Saturday, Chad, Antoine and I went grocery shopping a day earlier than usual, because we knew that the weather would be bad today. Antoine and I ate dinner at Rising Sons Deli (Really, really good! And I think it's very nicely decorated in there.), and I went to Anime Club. By the time I got to Club, I was pretty damn tired from the night before, and sitting in a dark room reading subtitles didn't help too much. Still, the shows were good last night (or at least, as good as Elfen Lied gets!).

After Anime Club, though, was the most fun evening I've had in a while. I considered staying home because I was tired, but decided to go join my friends from Bleak House (the book publishing company where I interned this summer) to celebrate my former boss's birthday. They had already eaten dinner and cake together, but I joined them for some sledding at Sanitarium Hill, way on Madison's north side. The view from the top of the hill was great - you could see the entire city! Also, the building is supposedly haunted because it was originally a tuberculosis sanatorium, where people went to die. It was such a creepy building! Made of brick with large windows, and french doors on the ground floor. It's pretty much exactly how I imagined the various buildings to look on the high school campus that my characters attend in my ghost hunting story. This page has some black and white photographs.

After sledding (the hill was so huge! It's been a long time since I had fun that way), we tromped through the woods, originally behind the sanatorium. Then, we decided to go to a fort that two of the others had been to. We drove out to the Mendota Mental Hospital (holy barbed wire, batman!) and walked out to a place called Governor's Island, and sat on rocks where Frank Lloyd Wright had allegedly built a house that sank into the lake. My socks were full of snow, as were my jeans, but it felt good to spend so much time outside, and not just walking to work or class.

The way home was mostly good, except that towards the end, the falling rain was freezing on the roads. Despite traveling at a low speed, I almost fishtailed right into a parked car. Within a block of my house, my car could not make it up a relatively shallow hill. I had to put it in reverse and let it slide downhill (Thank you, driving instructor! I never believed you when you said that straight-backing would come in handy some day!) and went around the block, going at it from a different angle. This hill was even more mild, and my car still almost didn't make it. It's on the street now, probably completely covered in a shell of ice. The buses stopped running at 8:30am this morning. I am supposed to lector at 9pm mass this evening, but unless the snow makes it easier to drive (doubtful!), I will probably have to call in. I hate having to shirk responsibilities, but hopefully people will understand my not-wanting-to-die.

Anyway, I am glad that I bought food yesterday. Today will be spent washing laundry, doing some schoolwork, cleaning, and watching some DVDs. And hey, you never know - maybe blogging about anime again. Are my posts becoming too spammy? I feel like I haven't been this prolific since high school.

I have so many things I want to blog about - so many open tabs in windows of Firefox, so many stories to tell. But I guess I'll start with the Obama rally, as it's most immediate.

Firstly, I did take pictures, but I will not have time to upload them until tomorrow.

Barack Obama spoke at the Kohl Center on campus today, and I went with Steph to see him speak. Antoine also went with some co-workers, but I didn't get to see him until afterward because there were so many people. When set up for a basketball game, the Kohl Center seats 17,000 people, and 2,000 were on the floor. There was also an overflow room.

There was no clear direction outside as to what door to enter through. We joined a line in which people assured us that we would get let in first. Most people went down two large paths that led to a long row of doors along the front of the building, while our line wound around the TV cameras. People going straight for the doors kept streaming in, and eventually, we switched over to the front doors. Unfortunately, we ended up in the very top of the third tier of seating, behind the stage. The four-faced TV hanging above the middle of the floor allowed us to see Obama (and the irritating elementary school-girl making faces at the camera behind him) just fine.

Obama was introduced first by Bryon Eagon, the leader of Obama's campaign on the UW campus. I don't think I've ever actually spoken with him, but I'm about 90% certain that he and his brother went to the same LeadAmerica program that Chad and I went to the summer after we graduated from high school, in Washington, D.C. Apparently, he took it to heart when Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff recommended that we get involved in campaigns, :)

Following him was the field director for the Madison area, and then Governor Jim Doyle.

Links
Obama's speech was inspiring, but also didn't contain much new information. I think that the "Yes We Can" video going around is based entirely on his stump speech, because just about everything he said was basically the same. Obama's general point is that he's fully aware of the talk surrounding him, that he is too idealistic. He understands how much it would take to make his ideas work, and he's prepared to do it. He truly believes that America is in a place where it's prepared to be right there with him.

An article here about how Obama is eroding Clinton's base in Wisconsin by claiming college students and upper-class independents. Wisconsin Democratic Chairman Joe Weineke says, "Obama's got the momentum in this state, but I never rule out a Clinton."

Chelsea Clinton was on campus yesterday too, although I couldn't make it for that speech.

And lastly, continuing from my last post, there's yet another way why this campaign is similar to the one in West Wing. A government official has leaked government secrets about a space shuttle! But this time, I can't complain about how it's inconsistent with the character in question.

College is hard.
Anyway. Seeing Obama was tonight, so I didn't get home until 10pm, and last night was the Career Fair. Most of the paper that I handed in today was written between 2:30 and 3:30am last night. I have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn tomorrow, so you can pretty much tell where I'm at right now. I look forward to tomorrow, when I will spend more than 2 conscious hours in my damn bedroom.

Most of yesterday sucked. Worked sucked, which is rare. I also pretty much hate my Global Cultures seminar. It being 2.5 hours long has a lot to do with it, as does the fact that there is no lecture component. It's just listening to my peers prattle on forever, and think we all know how much I enjoy that. I think that I've decided that I'd like to do my presentation on media representations of gender roles, as compared by Japanese manga and popular U.S. comics (LOLOL I AM SO AWESOME), though, so that will keep me amused for at the least the next two weeks. The rest of the semester, however, will be spent listening to everybody else's study-abroad experiences. Maybe I can write papers during class or something, and pretend to take notes. We'll see.

Some friends of mine went out after work, but I really didn't feel like walking all the way up State Street again for only 1-2 drinks. So, I didn't. Possibly I'm lame, I don't know. I only ever drink a few, and then I'm done, while most people would rather drink a lot more. And that's cool. I just get bored after a while.

SO! Antoine and I went out for dinner at Vientiane Palace (I feel like I spell that differently every time I type it. I suck.) and it was delicious, as always. In fact, I'm about to make myself some rice and eat it with the leftovers.

THEN, we watched Terminator 2 with Antoine's roommate and roommate's girlfriend. It was pretty damn awesome, although I kept falling asleep and Antoine kept having to wake me up. Apparently, waking up early on Fridays makes my evenings incredibly low-key. I am okay with this. Anyway, I'm now ready to start watching the Sarah Chronicles TV show with all of the spare time I don't have. YES. I'll probably finish Buffy season 5/Angel season 2 first.

Anyway, today is Anime Club, and hopefully I'll continue to blog about Code Geass and Elfen Lied. Elfen Lied better stop being all stereotypical. I also need to come up with a succinct way to articulate why I'm not impressed yet, as I think most Club members will assume that it's because of the violence/nudity, which is totally not the case.

Current Music: Grand Theft Autumn - Fall Out Boy

Holy shit. Yesterday was heinous. I was up at the ass-crack of dawn to go to a liturgy meeting, which I ended up missing because my bus was late (due to the snow). I made it on time for Ash Wednesday mass, though, and received a bold marking of ash that remained with me throughout the day, despite my forehead encountering copious amounts of snow. I think that at least one foot of snow dropped yesterday.

After mass was Ballroom dancing, which was mostly good, except when I sucked. More snow had accumulated when I walked to work, but once I got there, life was more weird. Most of the staffers had left, and there was nothing to do. Eventually, Chad called me and suggested I leave work early because buses and cars were getting stuck on the roads everywhere. A co-worker and I left together. Noting how many people were at the bus stops, and that buses were stuck on the Square, making it impossible for any more to get through, we settled for walking home. That is a 2-mile walk for me. Luckily, when we were 1/3 of the way to my place, I saw a bus on campus and sprinted for it. Pressed between people who were uncomfortably close to me, I stood while it surfed through many inches of snow.

madisonwi is full of stories about the weather, so I won't go into too much detail about stuck cars, although I will say that I have a deep hatred for people smart enough to own cross-country skis.

A brief reprieve for dinner, then an hour spent plowing and salting our driveway and sidewalks and unearthing the cars so that we could move them to the proper side of the street (yay, snow emergency!). By the time we were done, with all of the walking and snow-moving I did, my legs were shaking. AWESOME.

To make matters even more awesome, our kitchen sink is clogged. Chad and I spent about 40 minutes using a plunger on both sides of the sink and unscrewing pipes underneath it to see if we could get the clog out. We did not get the clog out, although I did get soaked in putrid water.

By the time I got up to my room to do homework and job-finding stuff, I fell asleep without washing my face, let alone taking a shower. So at least part of today will suck, because I have nothing done. I guess it depends on how well I can fake it in my smaller classes.

I am sick of everything, but most especially, I am sick of never having enough time for myself and the thing I need to do to have my life in order.

Wow, what a cheerful morning. I shouldn't be so down - I was doing things that needed to be done yesterday. I can't control the weather, and I can't control when things break, either. Today will be better because I will make it be better.

If any ho-bag in any of my classes who lives in an on-campus apartment complains about having to walk to class today, I think I might leap up in the middle of lecture and punch them in the face.

I should blog, in order to prove to the Internet that I do other things than just watch anime.

However, by the time I have enough spare moment to get a blog entry together in the evening, I have reached the point in the day when my bitterness threatens to poison my words and thoughts, and convince me that things are much worses than they truly are. My time is consumed by work, class, homework, and barely having time for life-things like groceries and shopping. Although I am still afraid of graduation, I can feel my insecurities slipping away as my resolve hardens and I realize that this isn't going to be bad at all. What the hell am I so afraid of? Life? I can totally do this. I am hopeful that this will force me to kick myself into higher gear.

Ash Wednesday
Speaking of having a full life, though, tomorrow I'm going to be gone from 6:30am until after 9pm. The only time I'm going to have to go to an Ash Wednesday service will be at 8:00am, which means that I have to walk around with ashes on my forehead all day. I never understand why the Ash Wednesday reading always has Jesus telling people not to make a big deal about it publicly when they pray, etc. And then we all get marked and leave it on all day. I might wash it off when I go to work, but I'm not sure yet. I'm not a fan of mixing government and state, but this is more like....practicing my own religion and not pressing it on others, right?

Speaking of Ash Wednesday....I have no idea what to give up for Lent. Did I even do anything last year? I suck at being Catholic.

Politics and the Ideal
I spent my evening watching the election results with Antoine and Chad. My favorite TV show of all time is The West Wing, although I haven't watched it in quite some time (I really should). Chad sent me a link to a clip of the show tonight, and I find it pretty fitting after watching Mike Huckabee talk to ABC's Charlie Gibson about his good fortune tonight. Gibson asked Huckabee why he had invoked references to the Bible in his campaign thank-you speech. Huckabee told Gibson that "Bible" was not a second language to him, but a mother tongue. Blah, blah, your mom.

It's no secret that I consider myself a religious person. But I've never understood people tendency to mix religion with government. We either live in a free nation, or we do not. Separation of church and state aside, it's always bothered me that by layering on all kinds of archaic rules, people tend to miss the whole point of Christianity.

OMG BUFFY/ANGEL
WHY DOES NO ONE TELL ME THESE THINGS!? The actress who played Willow on Buffy is married to the actor who played Wesley. OMGWTF.

AND, Christian Kane (Lindsey in Angel) is best friends with David Boreanaz (Angel) in real life. THAT IS SO CUTE. OMG!!

( SPOILERS )

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.

I guess I could blog before I get so tired that I fall asleep on my laptop. However, I woke up at 5:30am this morning, and that might happen anyway.

I really just feel run-down today. I lost my student ID and bus pass yesterday, which is obviously crappy. I live far enough away from campus that it takes about 45-60 minutes to walk home from where my classes are. It is cold as fuck outside, but I still walked home from my last class yesterday. Let me say: BAD CALL. I had to hug my thighs for a long time before I could feel them again.

Antoine and I went out for dinner, though, and had Mexican. So that was good. I also picked up some needed things from Office Depot, AND we went to Half-Price books. I picked up the Runaways v. Young Avengers comics (I've been following Runaways since it started), and The Beggar Queen, the last volume in Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy. I look forward to reading it. Standing in bookstores makes me feel guilty somehow, though. There are so many books I want to read, and even though I'm reading all the time, it never seems like enough.

At dinner , the waiter set the bill in front of Antoine, and not in the middle of the table.

Glaring and snatching it, I mutter to Antoine, "That was a little presumptuous of him."
"Well, we didn't tell them we were going to split the bill, so they put it all on one."
"I don't mean how they made the bill, I meant where he put it."
"Oh. Well....I do have a penis."

Today at work, I was making a list of homework for the weekend, things I should do for Anime Club, when I should work, how I should get my student ID/bus pass, etc. And I started to freak out a bit. Also because I have intense girl-pain, and because of this mostly uninhibiting diet I have to be on until the doctor figures out what's wrong with me, I cannot take Tylonel. DO YOU KNOW HOW HORRIBLE THIS PAIN IS? The only analogy I've ever come up with is that it's like a wolf came and chewed out my abdomen. Not in a very abstract-metaphor way, but in a very literal "sharp teeth very rapidly separated my innards' cells from one another, and there was a lot of pain as I crumpled into a ball and died."

BUT, in the end I decided to ask off of work on Monday. I would have had to leave an hour early for the Student Org Fair anyway, and I really do need a bus pass and student ID, but felt too horrible physically to do it today.

Is there good news? There must be. For the most part, I like my classes. Although I'm still not sure what ballroom dancing will be like, because we haven't actually danced yet. I kept almost laughing in class, though. Because it is like Princess Tutu! Only real life.

I have a habit of laughing at inappropriate times, really. I always have to stop myself from laughing when I'm in church.

Anyway, I feel crappy, so I'm staying home tonight. Hopefully, my room will become cleaner, I will watch more Angel/Buffy, get some homework done, and possibly see Antoine.

I have a big chunk of time between lectures on Thursdays, and today because my discussion section was canceled. So, I blog to you from College Library, where it is insufferably hot, it smells like coffee, and I can see the frozen lake and some of my fellow students. Why do they set up public laptops to face other people? I don't know.

My Constitutional Law class was as hilarious as I expected it to be. At the end of last week, I received multiple e-mails from my professor, some with syllabi attached. We then received an email written in caps lock, telling us to ignore "any and all syllabi" that we received prior to Tuesday. I found this extremely amusing. Today, part of lecture was spent describing the centaurs in Fantasia (which eventually got around to the point that there are different ways to interpret Beethoven's symphony that accompanies the scene, just as there are different ways to interpret law.). When class was over and we all packed up our stuff and left, the professor blasted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as we left class. I can't think of a better (ominous) way to start my last semester.

I seem to be running into lots of people on campus today. WTF, I've been here for 4 years and I know people.

What the hell, there is still an hour before my class. I don't trust myself to peruse the shelves, because I know I'll walk away with a large stack of books....Whatever, I'll probably do it anyway.

Everyone should watch the governor's State of the State address tomorrow night! Not only because it makes you an informed citizen, but also because you might see me! Bwahaha.

A lot of people on my LJ Friends list are partaking in today's "Blog About Choice Day," and I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I'm pro-life. I'd prefer not to engage in hardcore debate on the subject in the comments of my blog or my LJ. Abortion is one of those few places where I feel that there isn't a lot of room for debate. I am a feminist. A person either believes that "life" begins at a certain point (conception, implantation, 2 weeks, 3 months), or they don't. I'm usually up for arguing just about any other political issue, though. DON'T HATE ME, KTHX.

Current Music: sorority girls talking about their, like, really difficult lives

Random
Due to this housekeeping, my Bookmooch inventory has been updated, for anyone who is interested.

I ended up dropping the "Conflict Resolution" political science course that I had been signed up for, and enrolled in Constitutional Law instead.

Saturday. Do bold headings make you more inclined to read?
Saturday, I went out in the late afternoon to put up fliers for Anime Club on State Street. It was below 0 out, but having friends joined me made it better.

We went to the rec-room of some Club-members' apartment, and watched some first episodes of various series on a big screen. It was a nice pre-Club gathering of friends! Series that were new to me that I'm excited to watch more of are detailed at the end of this post.

Sunday
Yesterday, I bought groceries and watched the Packer game with Antoine. Some friends from work were having a Packer party, but I was pretty damn tired and feeling anti-social. The less said about the game, the better. But I think it broke my damn heart. :(

I am so lazy. Except for when I shoveled the snow off all our sidewalks and driveway, and unearthed my car.
Today, I didn't feel very well until after lunch. I've spent most of the day tidying up a bit (although, of course, my room is still not clean), reading, watching things, and perusing the interwebs. I probably would have gone shopping for school supplies if it hadn't been snowing all day long.

This is what happens when I don't take my vitamin.
Last night, I dreamt that there was some kind of program for the gifted in Green Bay. It was night, and my high school friends and I were by dimly-lit bars. I continually ran alongside the Fox River with two large metal tanks on top of a flightpack strapped to my back. Eventually, if I ran long enough, I somehow got lift and gained the ability to fly. Yes, it was pretty WTF. I rarely remember my dreams, though, so I guess it's worth noting. One thing that's weird, though? Whenever I do remember a dream, I can never remember one in which anyone I met after high school is in it. It's like my subconscious is frozen in place. I'm not sure what that means.

AND NOW FOR THE ANIME.
Code Geass: The premise of this series is that back in the day, a Celtic king resisted Julius Caesar's invasion of Britannia. This affected many other moments in British history: absolute monarchy was never abolished, the American rebels were suppressed in 1776, and all of North and South America belong to Britannia, which covers 1/3 of the world.

Britannia invades Japan, and conquers it with giant robots (come on; you knew that was coming!) called Knightmare Frames in less than a month. Japanese people lose their rights. The country is renamed "Area 11," and the former Japanese are referred to as "Elevens," and forced to live in ghettos. Rebel factions still exist, though, and the series seems to be quite patriotic.

The protagonist seems like he will be fun to watch, and the character design was done by CLAMP. I am sold!

(Synopsis mostly shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia)
More synopsis and screenshots of episode 1 at the anime blog 'Memento.'

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
It's difficult to describe this series. From what I can tell, it is set up into 4-episode story arcs. At the beginning of each arc, about 90 seconds of intense violence are shown, with one character committing acts of violence against others. Then the opening credits play. Then, four episodes are spent leading up to this first scene, explaining why it happens (I think!). The characters are all children, classmates, and friends.

It seems as though the beginning story arcs are all "question arcs," in that even when the arc is "resolved," the viewer still has many questions. Later in the series, story arcs are used as "answer arcs," and explain what is going on.

The character design seems a bit too cutesy for me at first, but I feel like that makes it that much more intense when the characters go apeshit.

Episode 1 screenshots and synopsis at anime blog 'Memento.'

As an added bonus, I like the OP song.

Current Music: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni OP - Eiko Shimamiya

Creepy 30-40-year-old bar guy, as I pass him on my way to the restroom: Hey......hey.
Me: *IGNORE*

Me: *coming out of the restroom*
Creepy Bar Guy: *creepily standing outside of the restroom* Hey. Can I talk to you?
Me: No.
Creepy Bar Guy: Why not?
Me: GOOD-BYE. *returns to bar, surrounds self with friends*

Once rejoined with my friends, we sent two girls to guard another girl still in the restroom.

What is it with Creepy Bar Guys who are at least twice our age, or maybe only 1.5x our age? Do they think we will find them attractive? Do they think that we are flattered when they stand outside of the restroom and exude an aura of creepiness that exceeds previously-known possible levels of creepiness?

Because: WE ARE NOT.

Really, though, tonight was a lot of fun, aside from the creepiness. AND because we didn't stay long inside of the bar I wanted to go to, and get the pizza I wanted. But that sort of turned out alright because the Argus? HAS THE BEST FOOD EVAR.

What the hell, it's snowing and we're supposed to get 2-5 inches of snow. I wish Chad would be here to help me shovel when I get home from work (or Saturday morning), :(

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Entries tagged with college

Buffy, Season 8: Issues 6-12

Library Desk Graffiti Never Gets Old

Surrender

The common thread is books

SUCCESS

I have prevailed

WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT.

Brought to you by sleep deprivation

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary....

Treading Water

Best Weekend Ever.

Yes, we can.

But Mom, I just want to read comics all day!

AND NOW IT'S 6 DEGREES OUT. THANK YOU, WISCONSIN.

Everything and its mom

I SUCK AT TITLES, KTHX

What a week.

Did you know? This icon is me, drawn by my friend Steph! It makes me cackle.

Last night before the semester....EVAR (maybe)

Brought to you only slightly under the influence