This year, MuseBlog will be dedicating each month’s Random Thread to a different Muse and ens realm of expertise*. For starters, we’re declaring the rest of January the month of astronomy and renaming it Uranuary. Lady Bunniful’s interstellar graphic says it all. Ad astra, omnes!
*When we run out of Muses, we’ll turn to Graces or GAPAs or something. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
GAPAs would be an awesome theme for the Random Threads… but one would get left out! Unless two were featured in December or something.
We have more than four GAPAs?
Also, that is a beautiful image atop the thread. May I ask how it was made?
No, but there are nine Muses and four GAPAs, which adds up to thirteen months.
Ah, I see what Rosebud meant.
And what about Devil? Would he be featured in the Kokopelli month?
But if we adopt the obscure Fortean calendar, which has thirteen months and a few extra days, then we can feature a Muse/Gapa every month!
Castle: yes, you may ask. Here’s an attempt to answer. Hope it helps.
Oh my goodness! That’s an awesome picture, Lady Bunniful.
I back you up on that.
Spiffy picture yet again, GAPAs!
IT SNOWED IT SNOWED IT SNOWED IT SNOWED IT SNOWED IT SNOWED
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
If you can’t tell, I’ve been waiting for snow for awhile.
It snowed!
I had a friend who was complaining about the snow… and it wasn’t even really snowing, just tiny little flakes in the breeze.
I told them that you’re not allowed to dislike snow until late February when it’s piled up in dirty heaps everywhere and there’s slush everywhere and salt staining your shoes and the bricks everywhere.
FOR NOW, IT SNOWED!
That is an excellent picture, Lady B.
Also, my dad’s here! And I have extensive cookie-making plans for today.
I thought January was “Whisky and Helicopters Month”.
It’s an odd day.
Beutiful picture, and well worth the wait.
I haven’t posted in a few days. That’s because I moved back to college and have been busy with the typical “beginning of the semester” rush. But now Iv’e been to all my classes, reunited with my friends, decorated my room…
There is so much to tell you guys. Let’s start with the little things. Last semester my walls were entirely blank. Nothing on them. Total blank slate. Now, however, there are sixteen different pictures of wildlife taken from the 2009-2010 National Wildlife Federation calendar, which came free in the mail and has been sitting in my room for the past 3 years doing nothing. I knew I’d find a use for it someday. All hail my packratiness! My room looks so cool now. Particularly since the ceiling slopes down to a pretty low height and I’ve got all these pictures on it right in your face.
I love sloping ceilings.
Me too!
Well, I do now that I’ve stopped banging my head on it every time I get up in the morning.I did this.
But then I developed an instinct to get out of bed very… low.
But now my room has changed, so I have a flat ceiling. I am told I look somewhat strange getting out of bed now… ducking to avoid what is not there.
Great picture! Well worth the wait.
It snowed here, too, (actually, it’s still snowing), and the campus looks very pretty.
Regarding the 9 Muses-12 months problem, maybe a month for the Muses as a group, a month for the GAPAs as a group, and December being all of them hanging out together?
Excellent picture! Will we be renaming the rest of the months, too? I like that…
172.1 (Robert) on the last thread– During the normal school year I’m assured that the meals are mostly vegetable stir fry, salads, beans/lentils and some sort of protein (meat in one or two of the co-ops, but more often tofu or seitan). But this is winter term, and we have abnormally large budgets and no refund checks, which means we can afford to go kind of crazy and have fun with it.
Lunch today was bean soup or apple soup in breadbowls. Tonight is truffle oil special meal
Last night I got to go and see the Mythbusters live, on their “Behind the Myths” tour! It was absolutely amazing. The experiments and demos were so-so, but just listening to them talk and hearing stories about the show was awesome. *Dies.*
In other news, I’ve been learning how to make chain maille. It’s harder than it looks, but I think I’m getting it.
Sounds really cool!
I went to the library today to do some reading, and I decided to sit in a different part of the stacks from where I normally go. Behind rows and rows of yellowing government records, I found a nice secluded spot. On the desk was written, “If your feeling blue, just look up and find something new.” I looked up and found the next clue. It was a short little scavenger hunt some bored student had created. Since no one else was around, I followed the clues till the end. About a dozen people had found the first clue after the ceiling (and had written their names as per the instructions), but only one other person had found the last clue. The last piece of paper said to write your name, the date, and an original quote. I signed anonymously. It wasn’t a very good scavenger hunt, and it was rather misspelled, but it really cheered me up. I like the stacks. They remind me of a forest–rows of trees and not many people.
That sounds like fun. What quote did you write?
It wouldn’t be as special if it weren’t the final reward in a secret scavenger hunt, would it?
…fair enough. I guess this gives me another reason to visit you and the cornfields someday.
There are soybean fields too. And in the western part of the state, where the soil is too sandy to grow much, they raise cattle.
Sounds like a place where people are… out standing in their fields. (va bum bum)
Right. I need to start doing that sort of thing.
I want to try something like this now.
Time to go make a scavenger hunt.
So. Yesterday I spent the morning taking an algebra midterm. For the rest of the day, I hung out in the library (I skipped most of the “we-need-to-keep-the-kids-busy-until-we-can-ship-them-home” activities in favor of practicing for Battle of the Books) and got to skip basketball all-stars (in which we sit in the bleachers listening to people yell with nothing to watch but a bunch of eighth graders fooling around with a basketball) to go read, too. The last period of the day, I hung out with half the jazz combo (including Paperclip, but not the Musical Overachiever) and practiced and then went to a Battle meeting after school in which I got karate chopped a lot. That was yesterday, and it rocked.
Today I woke up early to go to all-district jazz auditions. When that was over, Altosax and I went to these quaint little shops downtown and looked around in the rain. Best moment:
We went to this awesome supermarket co-op and had breakfast for an early lunch (challah French toast is AMAZING) and bought cheese. Then we went into a yarn shop and spent about an hour looking at yarns. We found some on sale and I got four skeins with which I am going to make the world’s most epic pair of fingerless gloves. Hopefully. And I promised to teach Altosax how to knit. After that we discovered that the chocolate shop was open, and we spent another hour in there drinking the world’s best hot chocolate. It was amazing and a very small shop and CHOCOLATE.
We’re standing under an umbrella under an awning, I’m wearing my trenchcoat, the rain is pouring down, and Altosax says: “Don’t you wish I was {Paperclip} right now?”
Without giving away too much information, I hope I can safely say that Paperclip’s last name was also the name of this awesome local supermarket, and Altosax bugged me about it the whole time.
So. Jazz. Battle. These totally seperate universes are intersecting. The All-District jazz clinic falls on the same day of our Battle of the Books competition.
What to do, what to do? I don’t even know whether I want to make District Jazz or not. My best hope is that it all gets snowed out and one or both are rescheduled so that I can go to both. I can’t abandon my Battle team; however, I’m not sure how my confidence, self-esteem, mental health, ect would hold up if I skived off this clinic. And I’m not sure if I made it yet. I don’t even know if I made it.
Anyway, awesome two days, but angsty decisions to make in the near future. This has been an update.
I went to a ceili last night! It was amazing and so much fun, and I bought a CD and then he gave me a free one as well! Then we walked back to the school shuttle across a beautiful bridge and looked out over the bright lights of the city and the muddy river and the wind. And when we got back we were exhausted from so much dancing but tried to do our usual social stay-up-until-three-talking-and-drinking-tea thing, but we all kept passing out and eventually all four of us gave up and went to sleep on my roommate’s bed.
ANYWAY I am now obsessed with ceilis, and my legs are in so much pain. Also I got burnt today making tea and so all my leg-pain has been redirected into my pinky. ARGH
BUT SO MUCH FUN GUYS
I went out walking in the snow today and took a lot of nice pictures. It made all of the trees and buildings look very quiet and serene.
Also, I wanted to mention this a while ago, but I kept forgetting– while I was at home, my brothers got the January issue of Game Informer and I read it in the bathroom. There was an article on an upcoming game called “XCOM: Enemy Unknown” that sounds like it has almost EXACTLY the same mechanics as what I’ve been imagining my fictional “Space Age” video game (I described it on a random thread a while back, I forget which one) would be like, aside from the fact that the player is running an organization that protects against alien attack rather than a realistic space agency. This means that if I could actually get someone who made video games to make “Space Age” a real game, everything I imagined would be computationally possible.
We’re going to [city in New Zealand]. A few days ago my mum was considering doing it sometime, then she thought it was best to do it this summer. So we are. This is the second time I’ve been overseas since I was old enough to remember it. Wow. I’ll be visiting relatives. Ones I want to see. What is this? Not that I object to getting to see more of the world, especially a really pretty part of it, but wow.
13- Cool! I learned a few ceili dances last year in my Irish Music exco, but haven’t tried since. Sounds like fun!
Might go ice skating tomorrow for the first time in months! bhsdfjkngs I miss skating so bad. Hockey a ton, of course, but just being out on the ice the most
I need to steal my skates back from the locker room and it needs to get super cold here so I can go pond skating. Sigh.
Also, OH MAN TRUFFLE OIL. That happened. There was white bean soup, a salad, mushroom potato tart-style things, and another dish I can’t remember, all with a generous amount of truffle oil. That stuff is pretty potent. Tasty, though not my favorite flavor. Still a fun experenice. And the chocolate truffles at the end (without the oil in this dish at least) were SOOOO GOOOOOOOOD I ate so many of them. OMNOM.
Found “The Oxford Book of Latin Verse” at a used bookstore… Excellent. So much for studying for exams, but I’m sure this will help me with my Latin exam, right? Right.
What a wonderful day! It was the date of my town’s annual pie-eating event, Pies On Parade, and I went around town eating pie. Most Muserly thing (near me at least) ever. SO MUCH FUN!!
(Basically, people pay money to get a ticket to wander around town getting slices of pie at participating restaurants and stores and inns. All the proceeds go to the food pantry. AND PIE!)
Ah…I am so full…but that was amazing.
I now have the urge to write a pie-themed parody of Bulls On Parade.e
GUYS GUYS I JUST ASKED NEIL GAIMAN A QUESTION ON ONE OF HIS BLOGS AND HE ANSWERED IT AND AAAAAH AAAAAAH AAAAAAH
WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!
What did you ask him??????????? An dwhich one of his blogs was this?????????????
If he could think of anything to say to people who try to tell you “girls don’t read comic books”. I’m not sure if I should say which blog, since it could lead people to my own blog and I don’t think that’s GAPA-approved.
He replied, “Nothing polite. Most of the things that I can think of end with the word ‘off’.”
How exciting! I like your question. I like his answer. I like it that the man continues to demonstrate that he is Muserly, even if he doesn’t know what that means yet.
That is a great question and a great answer.
What did you ask him about?
WHAT DID YOU ASK?!?!? SQUEEEEEEEEE! *fangirl attack*
You did? Details, we need details!
Th-th-tha…. that is amazing.
I had the time to draw for the first time in a while today, so I drew and colored an angry sea jelly with the words “I’m mad jelly” on it. The other girls on the floor who saw it liked it.
I’m into Sherlock now!
Just finished watching Reichenbach Falls and
why
why Moffat
That show. That episode. I just got a shirt that says I Believe in Sherlock Holmes on it to help express some of the feelings I have.
RB is innocent!
I was going to post this in Books and Reading, but the whole story expands beyond just books so it’s going here instead!
Pretty much every Christmas I go and visit my cousins in California. There are three of them: J, a (female) college junior who has pretty much always been my role model, R, a (male) high school senior who doesn’t really talk to anyone, and S, a (female) high school sophomore. I think that now S is pretty much going to be my favorite cousin from now on. Sorry, J, you’re all I want to be, but you’re nowhere near to who I am.
S is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. So much that she’s read little else since the last book came out. I think she realized that she needs to move on, though, because she asked for and received a boxed set of The Hunger Games Trilogy this Christmas. Her dialogue with her mom:
S: Mom, are you sure this is the whole Hunger Games?
Mom: Yes, dear.
S: Well, only the first one is called The Hunger Games. What are these other two?
Mom: Those are also part of the series, sweetie.
S: Oh…
That’s right, S has read so much Harry Potter that she literally didn’t know that a lot of series have books that don’t actually have the series name as their titles.
Once I realized that she was really THAT MUCH into Harry Potter, I decided to indoctrinate her to Doctor Who (Pun yay!). I was thinking of getting everyone to watch the Christmas special on BBC America, but we watched Ratatouille instead. Which is a big relief because the Christmas special this year was rubbish. S’s first few episodes had to be carefully calculated to get her hooked immediately. Fortunately S had already heard a lot of good things/fangirl-ness from her friends at school and wanted to try it out anyway. All she needed was a nudge from me.
The next morning I logged on to our Netflix account (sadly S’s family does not have Netflix anymore… she’ll have to fend for herself online) and showed S Blink. She seemed impressed. I decided to show her another episode, one that showed off the character of the Doctor some more, so I went with The Christmas Invasion. Yes, I know, not the best, but I had kind of forgotten which ones were good and which weren’t and I remembered that one was funny. Plus, it was Christmas!
The whole time I was fangirling about David Tennant. And guess what? S was such a huge HP fangirl that she RECOGNIZED David Tennant from Goblet of Fire!
S: (as soon as David Tennant appears) He looks like Barty Crouch Jr.
Me: OMG IT’S THE SAME ACTOR YOU’RE AMAZING, S!!!
S had also received a huge Harry Potter behind-the-scenes all-eight-movies book for Christmas, so we looked through that for a while, too. David Tennant has his own page! Yay! I kept making her flip back to him. My fangirl-ness was on overdrive that day for some reason.
Anyway, epic story of HP obsession, then branching out to more epicosity. I just hope she finds all those episodes somehow! And that I haven’t overwhelmed her with David Tennant fangirling. SQUEE DAVID TENNANT!!!
So now that all the scores are final and stuff, I think I can safely say that I made second chair (read: last chair or ‘other tenor’) All-District Jazz and I’m trying out for All-State Jazz. I’m not sure who else made it. But Altosax didn’t. Even though she’s the best alto sax player I know and certainly the best at improv and sightreading. *sigh*
So I’m not going to the Battle competition. I decided that this morning. I’m going to prepare my team the best that I can, send them off with peppermint bark and my cell number, and hopefully keep in touch with them at the clinic and concert.
But I might have to not do handbell this spring. I love playing handbells at my church but so many things interfering with it I don’t think I’ll be able to.
But All-State Jazz! I’m excited for the audition, and plus it’s on the same day as All-State auditions so I’ll be going with Paperclip and Musical Overachiever. And whoever else qualified to audition; I’ll find out tomorrow.
Oh, and I like the thread picture!
Munchin’ on my night cheese!
And gralicy-pepper bread Matt made for me for getting him aluminum foil!
Winning life.
I process typos strangely… Somehow I read “gralicy” as like a gralice, and decided that it was a chalice filled with grapes.
It makes more sense now.
I was about to say, “I wonder what ‘gralic’ is. Is that when you frolic with garlic? In that case, I love to gralic! I gralic all the time! I’m like a grackle for gralicking!”
GIVE ME YOUR GARLIC OR I WILL SUCK YOUR BLOOD
That looks utterly random in the Recent Comments Bar.
Nobody remembers the Garlic-Vampire Wars?
Of course I remember that! It just caught me by surprise–it looked sort of strange in the middle of all those comments that were mainly typed in lowercase.
Oh, I remember perfectly well, even though I wasn’t there. (I read it later). I responded the same way I would have if you’d said that to me during the actual war. Have you decided whether you’re going to suck my blood yet, by the way?
I tried to grow a garlic once. Not as in growing garlic, as in I had an old clove that started sprouting so I placed it in a tub of dirt and measured ens height at 6:30 precisely every morning.
The clove’s name was Hamilton.
I would certainly have guarded it with my life (and blood).
Hamilton is a really good name for sprouting garlic.
Thank you. It had a successor whose name was Bartholomew, who was never as successful..
Don’t start this all over again. Fry-able vampires are really not that great. They tastes bad too, don’t they, precious?
Dust and ashes.
Well, the Battle team didn’t take that as well as I expected. I know I’m important to the team and all, but they’re making it sound as if I’m ditching. I want to go to All-District Jazz just as much as I want to go to competition.
Sure, I have a choice, but it’s already been made for me. I’ve made that choice.
Not looking forward to them breaking my arms. Or stealing my saxophone.
Or setting of bomb threats.
Or kidnapping me. Or eating my soul.
Maybe they’ll stop kicking me and telling me I’m worthless and a coward and a quitter and a traitor if I- *yawn*- give them peppermint bark.
I’m so tired.
That was whiny. Sorry.
I hold in my hand an application for a private school in Michigan, the scholarship portion of which reads: “In 500 words or less, describe one thing you would like the admissions officers to know about you.
So. Um. I shall explain more about this in a moment, but in the meantime, can anyone think of one thing about me that would impress high school admissions officers and that I can explain in a page and a half?
Your penchant for kissing monks?
Honestly, CO, I can’t think of a single aspect of your multifaceted character that could be satisfactorily explained in a page and a half.
My essay is now entitled Escapade: the Adventures of a Natural Monk Magnet.
This is what happens when I write under the influence of Musers. Oh Robert, what have you done.
Mwahahaha.
Please tell me you’re being serious right now.
I am indeed. I’m hoping admissions officers appreciate brutal honesty.
That’s amazing. Best of luck!
I’ve been very busy, but… YESTERDAY I MET RICHARD GARRIOTT AND JOHN GRUNSFELD! SQUEE!
Aaaaah it has been forever since I posted on here. I feel like such a terrible sporadic MBer.
Finishing up a month on the boat, we’re heading back tomorrow. I am psyched for the return of technology, and will probably not sleep much for the first week or so. Too much internetz to catch up on, too little time. *likeapriorityconfusedboss*
Hi, all! Sorry I’ve been gone, I’m excessively busy which is odd considering that I’m now a second semester senior. It’s so weird saying that.
Anyway, I have had a few college auditions over the past few weeks. I have one coming up Friday for the biggest music program at the most prestigious college in Michigan, so I have a slim chance, but it’s a chance at any rate. On top of that, I got accepted to the school i really want to go to, which is a dream come true. Now I just have to get into the music college. Fingers crossed!
ACK Job applications how do they work? Need to fill them out how do I find them.
I can’t really organize my thoughts about this week into anything coherent, so you get them all jumbled and out of order:
Is it just me who feels like a large part of English class is saying nothing at all in a pretty way? Today I wrote two in-class essays for my final, and they were the literary equivalent of bubbles in soda: sweet and good to look at, but ultimately without content. And I’m going to get great grades on them. (I’m kind of surprised I wrote the sentence “Miller suggests that as an indivisible nation, we cannot have liberty until we also have justice for all” without giggling.)
Castle and also JLynn are amazing in general, and should be given many hugs. Yay them.
I had blood tests today and they drew ten vials of blood. Ten! I’m surprised I didn’t fall over, they took about a pint! But this is supposed to tell if I have a vitamin or mineral deficiency (especially iron or Vitamin D), which could explain my emotional dysfuctionality, which would be cool.
I have read three books of Sandman comics (this was right before I asked a question of Neil Gaiman) and oh my god, they are fantastic. I really want to cosplay as Death. I already have most of the clothes, so all I would need would be the ankh necklace and the studded belt. Death is my absolute favorite. I don’t know why, but I find her an enormously comforting character. Reading about her is the best destressor I’ve found so far this finals week, better even than music.
In Psychology we had a “hunger motivation demonstration”, also known as a party with food. (We’re not allowed to have parties at school, hence the terminology.) I made one batch of chocolate chip cookies for that and one for Journalism, and stole about half the raw cookie dough to eat. Actual best thing.
Well, you have to decide what the purpose of English class is. You are learning to use English in a certain way, are you not? Your written expression in the language is becoming more refined, isn’t it? Quite a bit of life is saying nothing in a pretty way; it’s a fairly helpful skill to have. I think it’s secretly the reason anyone here thinks I have any merit at all. Maybe what you’re writing about Arthur Miller doesn’t mean much to you, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t mean a lot to someone else. Stranger things have happened.
It’s funny, I think that in every series or book with death as a character, they’ve always been one of my favorite: Sandman, Discworld, The Book Thief, Problem Sleuth…
Wow.
Found out a little while ago that my friend is pregnant.
She’s really happy/excited about it.
She’s a year younger than I am.
Wow.
After posting I realize the tone of this might be hard to read–I am pretty shocked, and nervous, but also happy for her. She’s always wanted kids and she’s not viewing this as a mistake or a life setback. And the father is her long-time boyfriend, who is also very excited. They have an apartment together they’ve lived in for nearly a year (minus a month after Irene). I’m mostly just hoping things all turn out okay. I just… wow.
I have friends in a situation like this.
And I’ve never even had friends who’ve engaged in activities that could result in pregnancy…
Neither have I, but we’re much younger than Jadestone. I don’t know whether or not you’re younger than Castle, though.
Wow. This reinforces a statement a GAPA made some time ago that illuminated the fact that a lot of MBers might be getting married in the near future.
That’s a very scary thought. We’re getting old.
Tcha. You’re not even ripe yet.
AAAAAAAHHHH
AAHHHHH WHAT IS THIS
*runs and hides under bed with baby blanket and stuffed monkey*
…Either I’ve said the same thing as a GAPA or muselover actually somehow mistook me for one. Either way, THANK YOU SO MUCH I AM SO PROUD
As an honorary GAPA, I now give you the right to join our ranks. Congratulations, Bibliophile!
YOU HAVE NO PROOF THAT WAS ME
Except for the identical IP addresses and emails.
Umm…
…
IT WAS PIGGY! BLAME HIM! *runs away*
Thank you! *does not want to log out in order to change name but is ecstatic about position*
I was thinking about this the other day! I wonder who will be the first?
Hello all! I have a question:
I just finished watching “Family of Blood” again, and was thinking about what that boy said about the Doctor: “He’s like fire and ice and rage…” That line.
Doesn’t Rose say that sometime? Or am I going crazy? Maybe that boy’s voice sounds like a girl’s to me.
I don’t know…that line in my head has always been associated with Nightmares ever since Still Got Legs came out.
I think Donna might say that. I’m not sure.
I know it’s a pretty well-known quote (I’ve seen it on T-shirts and in Chameleon Circuit songs) and I know that boy said it. For some reason I remember Donna saying that, though. Hmm.
I’m pretty sure he’s the only one who actually says it like that – there are several other people who say something along similar lines – something to do with fire, being brilliant but angry blah.
“C is kind of like the Latin of computer languages.†— my Data Structures professor
Piggy (or other Latin-speakers), do you have an opinion on this?
I’m not sure what he’s referring to with this. The number of later languages it’s influenced? Fairly accurate, if that’s it, although Latin more strongly influenced semantics while C more strongly influenced syntax–unless you count the Roman alphabet as syntax. So if C is Latin, I guess Java is Spanish and C++ is French?
Nowadays, it’s more like the English of computer languages – or at least, C++ is.
My life plan:
1. Attain a doctorate in some field (specifics unimportant)
2. Acquire an assistant professorship from some university (specifics, again, unimportant)
3. Change surname to “Oak”
4. Ask every student that takes my class, “Are you a boy or a girl?”
5. Probably get fired before I get tenure
6. Live happily for rest of life knowing that I achieved my dreams
…world’s most elaborate troll?
Why Oak?
It’s a reference to Professor Oak, the man you meet in the Pokemon games before starting your adventure. The first thing he asks you is “Are you a boy or a girl?”
That… that is amazing. Wow. Piggy, didn’t you say you could be a professor in Pokemon Studies or something of that sort? If so, DO THAT. If you want to teach more than one class, I recommend something to do with either taxonomy or biological weapons.
My brother says, “Make sure your grandson is named Gary.”
Oh yes.
YES.
YES
My mom was choosing a bunch of books to give away today. I saved Attack of the Smart Pies JUST in time.
I remember when that came out! I never read it, though.
It’s my blogiversary today. 4 years. Wow, I feel old.
Happy blogobirthday!
Happy fourth blogiversary!!
SOPA’s international big brother ACTA just passed in Poland.
No more Poland proxies for me, then. ACTA….man. That’s really bad news.
Was the pun intended? If so, it was brilliant.
Pun? I’m assuming it’s off of Big Brother in an Orwellian sense or otherwise…
If so, not intended, but I really wish it had been!
The Orwellian sense, yes. I know there’s a difference between watching everything everyone does and censoring everything everyone does, but it’s hard to effectively have the latter without the former to some degree.
SHE LIVES.
Uh, hi guys.
So, second week of school and guess who’s overwhelmed?
It’s okay though. It’s all cool/fun/interesting stuff, it’s just a lot. I read a book this past week, and I have to read another one this week, as well as keeping up with supplemental readings in other classes, and daily quizzes, etc., and I don’t even have any writing assignments yet. It doesn’t help that I basically have only 2 or 4 hours every night that I’m not in class, at work, in rehearsal or trying to get enough sleep to not die.
Aaaaand on Sunday I have play practice all day. And then next Saturday is tech all day too. Why did I think it was a good idea to be in the play? Really, why?
Oh right, because it’s fun. And I’m only in a small handful of scenes are very minor characters.
Terrifying moment last night when I realized that I’d not actually practiced my lines for the chaos scene where I was plucked from my role as a paperboy to be a porter with a bunch of strange and confusing cues. So, off-book with no practice, in a role that I’d only done one night before with everyone else doing what they’d done since the beginning. IT WAS EXCITING.
Also last night I was assigned the dubious honor of being in charge of finding the vocal music for the Early Music Consort. Thankfully that’s something that I can do during my work hours, and it’ll be fun. I have three pieces now that I should work on, one in Old English, one in Italian, and the other in Latin. I’m regretting my decision to not bring Wheelock’s Latin with me, because I’d thought that would be a fun project. At the same time though, I realize that it would be a very, very bad idea for me to have it, because I’ve got enough to do as it is. *sigh*
Listening to madrigals on my roommate’s record player, and now off to bury myself in a book about John Henry……
I LOVE YOU ALL.
Oh, by the way Jade, every morning I drink orange and cranberry juice mixed together (because I don’t really like straight-up cranberry, and because the orange is too pulpy) and think of you. ♥
I think of the rest of you too, but not because of juice. ♥ ♥
Juuuuice ♥
Empty half-gallon count in my room: at least 13
Apollo 1, January 27th, 1967.
Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White, Roger B. Chaffee.
Ad astra per aspera.
*moment of silence*
…I can’t believe I know exactly what you’re talking about. I know NOTHING about spaceflights.
The fire was shown at the beginning of the film Apollo 13.
I think I have a crush on a musical now. Is that even possible?
It happened to me.
What musical? I love Sweeney Todd. And Assassins. And Into the Woods. And pretty much anything else Sondheim.
*high-five on Into the Woods*
HASA DIGA EEBOWAI
…people understand me? YES
…Actually, I don’t. I just pied you because it sounded interesting, sorry
I think it would be more of a really, really intense squish.
So I just called an entire play with no errors and no preparation (the actual SM was sick). Immodesty moment!
Holy cake, that’s impressive! Your immodesty is completely deserved. Good job!
Hello, MuseBlog, I’m back! Lots to catch up on, but first, much-needed sleep!
I just noticed that for a brief moment love has conquered horribleness in the world, and Romance and Relationships is finally above Rants and Plaints on the currently popular bar. It just seems like a pleasant message.
Uh oh, Dumbledore quote coming on.
(random: spellcheck recognizes “Dumbledore” as a word)
Impressive.
Adeliae not so much… I’ll try growing a long white beard and see how well that works for my fame…
This made me curious. ‘Selenium’ obviously works, because it’s a word I didn’t exactly make up. ‘The’ also obviously works. Interestingly enough ‘Quafflebird’ is recognised by the spellcheck. (‘Recognised’ is not…grr.) I’m fairly certain Quafflebird isn’t a real word so it’s funny how the spellcheck thinks it is. How does that work?
The R&R thread isn’t a very happy thread most of the time…
I ordered a fisheye lens for my camera yesterday.
I am really, really, really excited about it.
I also ordered some CDs for my work and music class, which is exciting, but not quite AS exciting.
Today I was going to be productive and read the book I have to do because I’m going to have play practice all day tomorrow, but instead I ended up wandering around with my friend Alex. She’s great and we’ve decided we’re kindred spirits. It’s nice to have another friend that I can be comfortable around.
We also went to the grocery store and I found (and got) a whole case of the only kind of ramen I can eat. Yay!
Then another friend who I haven’t seen in at least five years is here for the weekend. So that’s pretty cool.
Awesome! You’ll have to tell me how then lens works for you!!
I’m actually happy right now. I feel like I’ve actually done things today, and I’m going to do more things later, and I feel really productive, like I could keep going for hours. Since it’s already dark out, this may not be the best thing to feel if I don’t want to accidentally pull another all-nighter, which I don’t want to do because that will totally wreck me for the week. But today I slept in and it was gorgeous.
And I walked in the woods and fed geese because my friend was too scared to, and I have to admit that the geese are kind of freaky, and have been socialized to view humans as a food source due to college students constantly feeding them. So they will go after you violently for food if you get too close.
Peppermint tea and TED talks. Yes.
Homework? Ugh, why does it exist?
One of my quadmates is back! *dances* She is back for the last week of winter term and for next semester! Yaaaay!
“…an owl is typically the bearer of the deceased’s soul as is passes from this world to the next…”
Last spring the day my grandmother passed I found a baby owl that was lost under my porch and took it to a wildlife shelter. It was beautiful and calm, and being able to rescue it made me feel not as helpless as I otherwise would have.
Today a close friend who I’ve always called my grandmother passed away, and this evening I found a video of a baby owl being petted and looking blissful, which reminded me of Gideon, the the owl from last spring.
I’m going to be okay.
I want to give you all the hugs there are.
Hugs.
Also hugs.
I’m sending many hugs and much caring to you.
I chopped all my hair off last night. It is currently in sort of a bob, though I’m contemplating going to the local hair salon and getting it choped closer to what I mostly wanted it to look like. Something close to ear-length. Dunno, though. I wouldn’t be able to pull it back at all, then.
Arrrgggghhhhh, I’m siiiiiiiiick and my stupid cat won’t leave me alooooooone so I can get more than an hour’s sleep at a time and now I’m really groggy.
The good news…well, none so far. I’ll get back to you on that…I figured out the good news! I changed my background on my computer to ponies~
It occured to me recently that I don’t post about my own life much, so I’m going to try to be better about that!
I’m co-president of Sciece Olympiad this year, and one of the things we’ve implemented is the beginnings of a checkpoint system. Consequently, last weekend we had fifty-something kids swarming around the first floor of Ray’s house all taking practice tests from the online test exchange. I think it was effective in that people realized they have no idea what they’re doing and should probably actually study, so that’s good. As for me, I’m way behind on Water Quality, but I’ve got a decent section of a PVC instrument done for Sounds of Music, so that’s good. (Now if my partner would actually work on his instrument..)
All-District band was this weekend, and that was a lot of fun. It’s really nice being in a group for which learning five pieces in ten hours of rehearsal is actually feasible. At some point on Saturday I had one of those “this is so amazing anyone who doesn’t do instrumental music is missing the best part of life” moments. There were six kids from my school who made it, and they’re all great, so I spent some quality time with them. Also, my band director is a pro at getting lost.
Physics is still slowly murdering me, although I ended up with an A for first semester, somehow. If we didn’t have so much extra credit and partial credit I’d probably have a mid-range C right now, maybe lower. I’m actually up early to finish some homework… Whoops. Shhh, if I ignore it it goes away, right?
My little sister left for Israel on Wednesday. We’re really close, so it’s been hard. Yesterday was especially bad. My standard mode of dealing with this seems to be getting mad at my mom, which is awful because she misses my sister too and then it’s twice as bad for her. I need to work on not doing that. :/ I don’t really feel like talking about this.
What else? In the last two months I have become thoroughly obsessed with Sherlock. It is seriously the most amazing show ever. I actually even have very, very rough plans for a fanfiction in my head, which is kind of incredible because I almost never write anything. (I still use too many modifiers when I speak or type.) If I do write it it will probably end up here. It will probably also not be that good, because like I said I don’t write much, but I think it’s be fun to try anyway.
Also, I am rereading A Wrinkle In Time. “Speaking of ways, pet, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”
…you exist? *shock*I’m glad you had a good time at District; honors bands are always really fun.
I need to start watching Sherlock.
Yayyyy! The blog is back!
In other news, I made a laptop case. Boy, was that hard.
I just realized that my essay for my writing seminar, “Martin Luther King and the Ethic of Love” sounds a bit like a Harry Potter title.
So for some reason I couldn’t get on MB yesterday. I don’t know if it was the website or my computer, but it prevented me form talking about how incredibly non-productive my weekend was, compared to the high expectations of my last post.
Or perhaps it’s just that it was productive in a different way. See, last Saturday, I ended up taking a friend up on an old invitation to Saturday night TV watching with her friends. And it’s a specific type of TV they watch, too. Basically, if it’s been mentioned on the Geeky TV shows thread chances are someone in this group has seen it, and is trying to get everyone else to watch it.
But basically i spent Saturday night running around trying to find a spot to hook a laptop up to a TV, watched my first episode of Sherlock (which was actually episode three), then went out to eat at 1 in the morning, and then spent another hour talking about relationships with my friend.
So. Homework? Not that great. Social life? Booming. Really a good thing I had only one class today, as i’m going to need it for work.
The blog was down, unfortunately.
If you’re wondering why you can’t access us, I recommend visiting the Muse Academy blog to see if anyone has recently mentioned not being able to do so.
I tried to find Muse Academy, but i forgot the URL and searching doesn’t work.
museacademy dot wordpress dot com
Well, yes, it’s all well and good that I know it now…REally, I should just write it down someplace for the next time this happens so I have access.
There’s a link to it on the blog already, but when you can’t access the blog, you can’t access the link. I fortunately did remember it, but I had to think about it for a moment.
Unlike most places on the Web, we don’t want to be easy to find.
Guys
Les Mis tickets! Les Mis tickets!
I’M GOING TO SEE LES MIS IN THE SPRING
I got tickets yesterday!!
If this isn’t too specific a question, what state are you seeing it in?
*waves arms in wild excitement* It’s in my area right now, but I couldn’t go. Gah, I hope you have a wonderful time! (Of course you will, it’s Les Mis, what am I talking about.)
I’m currently trying to talk my mom into getting tickets for that show, probably at the same place as you are both seeing it…
SQUEE! I’m so excited for you!!!!!!!!! That sounds absolutely flamablamablous!! I forget–have you read the book? I’m sure you’ll have tons of fun!!!! AHHHH LES MIS!!!!
(And you’ll have to tell us all about it after you go, mmm?)
Today was an unseasonably nice day, so I went for a hike. I decided to try out the north half of the trail–every other time I’ve gone south. I didn’t pass anyone else until just before I got back near the parking lot at the end. There seem to be more birds on the north side of the trail–I saw quite a few chickadees, some snowbirds, and a couple of cardinals, as well as the occasional squirrel. There was a section of close-packed evergreen trees about two miles north of the trailhead, of which there are none (as far as I’ve seen) on the south side. The trail was a bit muddy in spots from snowmelt, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Of course, at one point I sat down off the side of the trail and watched the stream down below, so I didn’t avoid muddiness altogether.
Anyway, that was my afternoon.
What is a snowbird?
The internet tells me they’re more officially called Dark-eyed Juncos. I’ve only heard them called snowbirds around here, so that’s the name I know them by.
After some googling, do you mean juncos?
I had an opportunity to see Phantom of the Opera in Broadway in New York City with my band class. The reason why I can’t go? My parents said it’s too risky because we’ll have 2ish hours of free time with chaperones they don’t know. Now, this would be a reasonable thing to worry about – New York City isn’t exactly the safest place, of course – but the chaperones are all school teachers! (And my school, I might add, is VERY safe. And my parents personally know the band director and trust him, it’s just the other chaperones they don’t know.) Maybe they’re just being reasonable human beings and I can’t see it because I’m too upset being an angsty teenager, but this still seems pretty unreasonable to me. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. ON BROADWAY. How freaking amazing would that be? And I can’t go, not because I have a legitimate conflict, but because my parent’s simply won’t let me.
Enough complaining, though. HI MB! How have you been? I hope life has been treating you well, and I hope this post wasn’t too angsty. :/ I’m afraid it was. I’ll overcome that stereotype by instead contrasting it with the fact that I have been a little obsessed with philosophy lately. <– As in, I have been pretty much thinking/researching philosophy almost every free chance I get. I guess I just love thinking about the universe and I find it really fascinating. Not for a class, either, just for fun. I feel like a proper nerd.
I’m extremely sorry about Phantom; that sounds awful.
I love philosophy, too. Have you found anything you completely agree with yet? (I haven’t).
Thanks for your sympathy squids, guys. It does mean a lot.
Erm, I haven’t found anything really even remotely close to everything I agree with, ha ha! But I’m so uninformed at this point it’d be hard to really say. Mostly I just like reading about other philosophers and people’s opinons and interpretations and stuff but my own opinions are a little sporadic, which I suppose is sort of the point of philosophy, isn’t it? I certainly agree with some things I’ve seen more then others, but nothing where I’ve been like YES, 100% I agree with.
Yes, that’s how I feel. But there are some things I disagree with so strongly that I feel like taking time to think about why I feel that way–and then when I analyze it, I can draw conclusions from it. The more time I spend doing that, the more I notice whether I agree with a philosophy I’m reading about–or hearing about. My brother loves philosophy even more than I do, so we discuss it sometimes. We don’t always agree, but sometimes he thinks of things that wouldn’t occur to me (and occasionally vice versa, but not nearly as often because he’s much more knowledgeable on the subject than me).
I bought David Levy’s “Star Tails” at the campus bookstore. About a hundred pages of a nice old man talking about stargazing, discovering comets, hanging out with cool people, and telling funny stories.
Remember way back when I mentioned a play about tardigrades–except that it was only in Pennsylvania? Well, they put the whole thing online! For free! Legally! (The people who made the play apparently figured that since they weren’t going to show it anymore, there was no way they’d make any money off of it in the future, so they might as well do everyone a favor and let anyone who wants watch it)!
It is extremely hilarious. Everyone here would love it. It’s called Water Bears in Space, but since that’s kind of a generic title, you might not be able to find it; if that’s the case, could I please give a link to it? I’d really appreciate it if I could do that. It’s amazing.
GAPAs, sorry if I wasn’t clear, but I wanted to know if I could post a delinkified link to this play. I promise it’s entirely legal; if you want proof, then instead of linking to the YouTube video, I can link to the page on the play’s official website that links to the YouTube video. (If you say that yes, I can post the URL, please specify which, since the ‘give permission’ option just split in two). It’s completely blog-appropriate, too.
Go ahead and post it in a comment. We’ll take a look and decide when we moderate it.
Alright, thanks, here’s the link to the link to it from the play’s website, which is just so you to have proof the play’s company, producers, etc. don’t object to people watching it:
waterbearsinspace . weebly . com/videos.html.
Here’s the actual link so that you don’t have to also check out the play website and whether it’s appropriate (you can just delete the previous link, and if you decide to allow a link to the videos, keep this one):
youtube . com /watch?v=KrHuM9A-Iz8&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL323D0F346ABE78CF
[We’ll just post all the information. It looks mostly harmless. –Admin.]
I just got my new Muse magazine. Perhaps this calls for a new roll call and discussion?
I’ve been meaning to start one. Thanks for the reminder!
And Cat’s Meow and I beat our previous record for really, really short kokonventions. xD
Also, I definitely just tried to spell kokonventions with two c’s instead of k’s, and spent a good minute trying to figure out why it didn’t look right… I’m really tired.
YEAH!
I have to say, it was nice to recognize you right away this time. We’ll have to bring pie to one of these competitions to make it official!
ALSO: Thank you to the girl who wrote the Muserology about Burning Man!
Ha… They said the question, and three of us quite literally jumped on the bar. xD The other team got it first, though. How did you guys do?
2nd, 2nd, 2nd. We’re at least consistent! How about you?
What sort of competition is it?
>>> watch digimon all day
>>> eat nutella
>>> drown self in cranberry juice
>>> problems are gone
I was wandering through internet in numb shock when museblog was down and stumbled upon the fan page Hitchhiker’s Guide discussion. However, much to my shock the page was titled Hickhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Is this a typo or did I miss an old inside joke?
Oh, you mean the official page at http://www.musemagkids.com/library/fiction/hickhikers-guide-galaxy-hg2g . We take no responsibility for their typos. (We have enough of our own to worry about.)
I’ve been procrastinating really badly these past few days. Normally I multi-task and work mostly on my work with the odd distraction, but yesterday and today I’ve just been completely distracted, not even bothering to try and work while doing other things (Internet/watching things etc…) I feel really lethargic, as if I’ve stopped caring about getting my homework done, even though I know I still will end up doing it before it’s due (or after, if it’s delay-able). I regret it slightly the next day when I’m dead tired and I wish I’d been more productive the night before so I wouldn’t have to stay up so late, but somehow by the time the next evening comes I don’t feel as tired and I keep doing it. It’s interesting how listless and apathetic I’m feeling when it comes to work. It’s really quite strange. (This isn’t really a rant, more of an observation.)
I’m sick
My lens shipped yesterday and it is currently “in transit.”
Hnnnnnnnnng waiting for things in the mail is like PULLING TOENAILS OFF.
I want my stuff. Give me my stuff, Amazon. Give it to me now. Learn to caking teleport my stuff to me, okay? Please? PLEASE?
Like pulling off toenails. I SWEAR.
I know what you mean. And the only thing I’m waiting for is a USB hub.
I told my Dad to go ahead and apply for the Valentine’s Day Tweetup at NASA HQ, just because you never know, and… WE GOT INVITED! I don’t know if I’ll be able to skip a day of class, and the flight logistics will be interesting, but it’s still incredible luck!
Congratulations! That’s amazing, Kai!
I don’t know anything about this; will it be a weekday in Houston as well (with time differences)? How long will you be staying? I’m in the area, but I can’t miss school and don’t know if you’ll have time to go anywhere besides this, so probably nothing can happen, but I thought I might check. Once, a MuseBlogger visited Houston and didn’t mention it until afterward, so I never knew about it until it was too late, and I just don’t want anything like that to happen again. Granted, the age difference between us is large enough that if we could meet but you didn’t want to, I’d understand, but I’m assuming that’s not the case until I know it is. It’s probably not possible, though, really.
Wow, Kai, you’re so lucky; that’s great! And I know you’ll really enjoy it. Tell us all about it!