Friday, 3 May 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
This month’s random thread pays tribute to the Muse of Hardware, a master of technological wizardry. And speaking of wizardry, how many MBers remember his standout performance as Chadalf the Chocolate in Larry Gonick’s parody “Lard of the Rings” in the now-legendary November/December 2003 issue?
Date: September 1, 2012
Categories: Random craziness
I remember! 
Hullo, everybody. Just stopping in briefly, don’t expect to see me around here very much, only two weeks into my second year of vet school, and slammed with school. Three exams next week, already had two this week, and taking the equivalent of 22 credit hours of classes….
Hope you all are doing well.
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Yay Chad!
I’ll need to look for that issue. In the mean time, there appears to be a URL for that picture at the bottom of post zero. Is it supposed to be there?
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I think there was an issue about Lord of the Rings. The best thing about our school library is that they have Muse back issues from 2001.
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I don’t remember that… I’ll have to look for it!
Ah marching band!
We wore our uniforms and played in the stands (every other section has a good system for distributing stand tunes! But the baritones just have one giant bag of sheet music, most of it for things we never play! And then when you do find something you want, it’s for TC baritone!) But it was really fun and I only messed up twice and neither was actually during the show. (We only marched the first two songs; we still have a bit of drill to learn for the third song.) But overall I think it went well! Also I got to play trombone in band class because we were playing stand tunes.
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Yay Chad! Back in Boston, got unpacked yesterday, my window is smaller than I’d like, but at least it faces the city and not one of the walls of this building’s other towers, like most of the rooms in this tower.
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The Lard of the Rings! *yayness*
I’m starting to devolve into a liberpuella nihil nisi dormiendaque cenanda. But hey, I’ve still got a month until college starts.
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I just love it when your cat suddenly decides to jump on your lap and be happy for no particular reason.
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Aww, Chad. :3
I remember that issue, it was my first one. I was disappointed, since I’ve never really managed to be a LOTR fan, as much as I’ve tried.
Maybe next summer I should try again, since it’s been several years since my last attempt to read and enjoy those books.
Do we have a Things For Which We Are Grateful thread? If not, may I humbly suggest such a place?
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I really suggest The Hobbit! It’s easier to get into than LotR, lighter, and a fantastic story in its own right.
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Hooray for Chad! Though I started reading Muse after that wonderful issue, I was lucky enough to find a copy someone left at the book swap at my local library.
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I remember that issue! I feel old.
It’s odd, but this year I feel more like I’m getting a classical education than in any other year. What I mean is that I’m studying various battles of the Hundred Years’ War, analyzing Shakespeare and Chaucer, singing hymns in Latin in a choir, and discussing the effects of various laws and regulations within our government. It just all feels very much like I’m some son of an English lord sometime before 1880, and I’m getting an Education in the Classics. I almost expect to be learning Greek.
It’s most likely because all of the humanities classes I’m taking this year are so Euro-centric. AP English for seniors is widely referred to as “Brit-lit”, although we do study some American poets and playwrights towards the end of second semester, and the only history class available for seniors is AP European History. Last year it was all American literature and American history, which I have to say I found much less impressive but much more interesting (only because I live in America, though).
Very excited for Doctor Who this weekend! My friends and I are thinking of starting a Mahjong and Doctor Who Club, in which we would gather at somebody’s house on Sunday nights to play Mahjong and watch Doctor Who. We’re pretty sure nobody at our school actually wants to do both of those except us, so it would be a pretty nice club. (My friends Terpsichore and Egeus both have the loveliest Mahjong sets that their families brought all the way from Taiwan and China, respectively, when they came to America about fifty years ago. We are very impressed by how pretty they are, but that does not stop us from having really really intense games that my friend Daedalus always wins.)
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Leaving for collegeland soooon!! 
Stayed up till 4 packing and such… whoops
On the other hand, I finished painting my mermaid tail It has to dry another day, and then I have to heat set it, but then it should be goooood
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*resists urge to sing Dry Another Day*
…hopefully someone will understand that.
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A pun on the James Bond movie?
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Anyone doing anything special for International Vulture Awareness Day?
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Roosting. Watching. Maybe eating a little carrion.
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I found a dead rat today, if you’re interested.
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Rat? For me? You shouldn’t have.
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But not too much, too much dulls your talons, y’know?
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…Don’t tell me.
I am kind of infuriated about having missed that. I’ve never heard of that, but I love vultures. Oh, well, at least it exists.
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Mark your calendar for next year, then. Meanwhile, to cheer you up, here’s a classic vulture salute:
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Yes you are, turkey vulture.
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Aww, I remember that issue! My first was the “You are what you wear” clothing issue sometime earlier in 2003. (Crazy thought – sometime next year I will have been receiving and reading Muse for over a decade.)
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At the Museum of Science, waiting to get into the planetarium. Highlight of the day so far: seeing a seven-year-old tell her father she’s going to climb Mt. Everest and indicating the route she wants to take on the museum’s big model.
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A “Highlight of the Day” thread would be nice.
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So it looks like I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’m doing today. Right now I’m going to start working on my homework, which is mostly reading and online assignments. Then I’m going to work on cleaning my room and unpacking. And in the evening, my life will take a distinctly Whovian bent, as some of my friends last year formed a group for watching Doctor Who and other nerdy shows like that on Saturday evenings. I’m really glad I have friends like that. This is actually going to be the first time I see a Doctor Who episode when it’s being broadcast.
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What I did today:
-Walk dog in cold rain
-Watch death-note mini-marathon
-(Attempt to) make bubble tea
What I forgot:
-Copying notes for a friend who badly needs them
-Finding notes for a friend who also might need them
-Continuing a fanfic I’m writing with a friend
-Calling another friend
Conclusion:
Somehow, I’m completely unable to function without deadlines.
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Hey, I came across this contest being held by the National Eye Institute to come up with “audacious goals” for vision research that I think would benefit from MuseBloggers’ entries. The institute will pick up to 20 winners to get $3,000 plus $ to cover a visit to the institute (in the Washington D.C. area) to present the proposal. When I read about it I thought, this would be perfect for MuseBloggers! But then I looked at the eligibility rules and saw that contestants must be at least 18 years old and be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Waaaah. That rules out quite a few of you. But not all! If any of you are interested in entering, here are the details.
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That comic made me laugh.
First few days of school. It’s going to be difficult. But a good year nonetheless, I think.
I got a job! I’m a runner at a local restaurant. Last night was my first day. Runner means taking out food, rolling silverware, etc. It’s kind of crazy and very difficult, but no one yelled at me, so that’s good. Hopefully I can continue to do okay. So that’s exciting.
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Chadalf! Oh, that is one of my favorite issues!
My first week in college-land feels like a month. The amount of homework I am dealing with is akin to the workload I would have in high school at the end of a semester. And this is only the first week.
I hope I survive.
On an unrelated note, has anyone ever eaten Apple Jack and thought, “Those little red dots make the rings looked diseased”?
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I have. I’ve never liked them anyway.
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I am in my first boarding school. I am kind of nervous, but it is fun so far.
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*WHOP* It is I, Chadalf the Chocolate!!
I’m taking a Malware class. In which I will learn how to write malware in addition to learning how to dissect other people’s malware. *evil grin*
The other thing I’m very excited about right now is my printmaking class. I took one a few years ago, and really enjoyed it, so I expect to enjoy this one too.
So…if you hear about a virus that makes a slideshow of amateurish prints appear on your computer screen, you’ll know who did it.
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What kind of prints?
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Let’s see… *gets out syllabus*
Drypoint, a la poupee, chine colle, monotype and linocut relief.
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Ah, the Lord of the Rings issue! I was wondering why many of you didn’t remember it but then I realized that that one came out nearly 10 years ago. Aha. That would explain it. Also whoa. Is it really 10 years since 2003?
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…what, really? um… holy cake. I could have sworn it wasn’t that long ago.
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Time flies.
On a completely random subject, I have been subscribing since 2006.
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Yup, it is. Can’t believe February is 10 years since Columbia was lost.
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Weird. I really remember that day clearly.
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Things I plan to do today:
-math webwork
-read a chapter of History of Rock textbook
-possibly go to Society of Women Engineers (SWE) meeting
-possibly go to Simulation Gaming Association (URSGA) games day
-print and glue about 20 sheets of paper to form a life-size cardboard cutout of Alan Turing
-possibly sew more tentacles for beanbag cthulhu chair
sometimes I love college
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I just finished the first chapter of my college math textbook… I suppose 3/4 problems isn’t too bad for the first set.
As for other unrelated news, I’ve decided to study Japanese independently instead of double majoring in Math and Japanology. Firstly, Japanology seems to focus on studying the culture from afar, writing papers on it and learning to translate Japanese to German instead. This wouldn’t be so bad, except I can’t really be in two different places at the same time (which is kind of a requirement) and since I plan to spend a semester abroad, it would be hellishly difficult to graduate on time (and if you don’t, you have to start paying tuition).
I’m somewhat disappointed after talking about spending a semester abroad to the Math department’s advisors: they basically said that transferring enough credit is impossible, so you end up graduating late. Which isn’t an option. So I’m probably just going to have to split up the courses from the semester I’d spend abroad onto other semesters. I originally wanted to spend a year abroad 
Ah well.
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Back home at last!
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My church is going to be holding a pie baking contest later this month, so Llama and I are going to enter a gluten free chocolate pie!
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I may possibly have a prospect for a job next year in which I basically read and hyperanalyze books and then write questions about them.
Also, a while back I bought one of the UK copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone because we found it in a bookstore and we looked for all the differences between it and the American version.
I’ve started reading Death Note. It’s the only manga I’ve ever really gotten into, or read at all. Without getting too deep into the ethics of the book, I must say I’ve been silently rooting for L. 
Also I started re-reading all my old Rants+Plaints posts. It’s making me strangely happy.
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Well. Um. I… haven’t posted much lately. I’ve hardly been on here this week. Here’s the beginning of a summary:
Last Sunday, I went to a bayou. I was expecting a natural history demonstration, but there was none. That was alright, though, because I saw an alligator! I’d never seen one in the wild before! It was amazing!
I’m just going to completely skip the next 5 days because that all belongs on the Back to School thread. Wait! There is one other thing. I was asked to be interviewed for the volunteer position at the zoo that I really wanted! This delighted me.
So. Yesterday. Well… It was bad. First we went to the zoo to be interviewed, which went alright. I hate sudden changes in my schedule at the last minute, though, and that day, out of the blue, I was told that I had to go to another city. I had been expecting to stay home and relax all weekend. It was extremely stressful, and to make matters worse, there was nowhere to stay. Apparently, my mom hadn’t bothered to make reservations at a hotel, and they were all booked. We had to sleep in my grandmother’s nursing home, because it had a vacant bed. This added to the stress, because it was also extremely sudden and unpleasant. I also got very little sleep.
Anyway, I’m home now. The rest of the week was excellent, at least, and I have another day of the weekend left.
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I got a spectacularly small amount of work done this weekend, ugh.
The first play performance is in two weeks. That’s not really too bad, since I already mostly know my lines (since it’s basically the same as last year, I’ve only added a little bit). But it’s still worry-inducing.
Finally got my resume updated and sent it to the captain of Niagara, but am still feeling conflicted because I’m fairly certain Pip’s going to be working there next summer and I hoenstly don’t know whether it’s a good idea to work on the same boat at the same time again. As much as I don’t want to back down and let him have the boat and me get a job elsewhere…I just don’t know. I wish it wasn’t a factor.
College cooking 101 with Karen tonight, we made rice and I made a sauce for it out of peanut butter, soysauce, and water. It was pretty good, actually.
Heard back from one of the examiners for my Great Books course, the “exam” for that one book is to go and have an hour long discussion of the book with him. That sounds wonderful to me. He said grading criteria is “C if you convince me you read the book, B if you can have intelligent discussion about it, and A if you have some original insights and opinions on it.”
So. Yeah. I am excited. I have a feeling the other examiners will be fairly different though, and I’ve heard terrifying things about one of them. He’s apparently quite intense. Hopefully he’ll be intense in the same way as one of my favorite professors here is, since everyone is afraid of that one too.
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I make that sauce at home, but I use noodles.
Also, a conversation sounds a lot better than a test.
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I think I’m getting into an extremely one-sided love-hate relationship with beetle taxonomy. It is one of those things that is so frustrating that you want to scream and know that you are just going to be so satisfied once you’ve managed it, except that could be months or years from now.
(I’m trying to identify 3 beetle specimens with one field guide, two mediocre magnifying glasses, and the Internet. It is surprisingly seemingly impossible).
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I have a pretty good magnifying glass. If I could lend it to you I would…
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Thank you, I appreciate the sentiment. I think it’s not the glasses that are the problems, but the fact that I don’t know much of anything about beetle taxonomy yet. But I’m working on it. I think they might be in Pentodontini… possibly…
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If you ever come to New York there are some people at the American Museum of Natural History who would love to meet you. Not enough amateur entomologists come by to see the collections, and the drawers upon drawers… it’s beautiful.
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Back in schooool
moved in!
kind of…
The bed is made and some stuff is out at least. All my clothes/posters are still packed in bags/boxes. But bored of that.
Went to two tasty restaurants for lunch/dinner and Cowhaus, the ice cream place, twice. Woo! Probably uh, going to go back tomorrow. Yum.
Tired. But friends here. New room is strange though D: But I’ll get used to it…
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Drew posters for our astronomy club with my friends and then handed them out at the big student activities expo. I drew Curiosity carving “BUAS” (Boston University Astronomical Society) on a rock with her laser.
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The numbers on the clock wink at me
with each passing minute.
The fan swings it’s shining face
back and forth, back and forth,
humming idly to itself.
The glow-in-the-dark constellations
have long ago faded;
I see their outlines,
faint and dark against the wall.
The sheets nestle around my legs,
sighing softly each time I disturb them,
as if to say
“why are you still awake?â€
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Poetry does help with insomnia, as I’m sure Adam Young will testify.
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Now the world has gone to bed
Darkness won’t engulf my head
I can see by infrared
How I hate the night.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep
Sweet dream wishes you can keep
How I hate the night.
Your comment wasn’t referring to that, I’m sure, but it’s what sprung to mind.
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2:05 in my head
Now my vision’s turning red
I wish I could get a drink
Because my sanity is on the brink
Now it’s day, I want to sleep
But morning has me in it’s keep
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I sympathize…
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Things I accomplished yesterday:
-math webwork
-read a chapter of History of Rock textbook (two more to go for Tuesday, though…)
-Society of Women Engineers (SWE) meeting (which made me kind of angry — they were lovely people, but I was the only computer science major, and furthermore there are three or four women in the class I’m taking now, which is required for majors and has 50 people in it, etc.)
-went to URSGA games day, signed up to maybe join a tabletop RPG that meets for a couple hours on the weekend
-when my friend was done photoshopping, printed and cut and taped about 30 sheets of paper to cardboard to form my favorite computer scientist.
Should I try to send in a picture of me hugging Alan Turing?
Today the only thing I have planned is going to maybe a store of some sort, and then to a rapier practice tonight. It’s Labor Day which means no classes.
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Yes.
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I still have to take the picture, I will work on it though when I’m not about to go to fencing practice
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Dodecahedron:
Have you ever heard of the Grace Hopper Conferences for women in computing? They might be worth your while. This year’s is in Baltimore very early in October. You can find out more about them at gracehopper. org/2012/ .
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I’ve heard of Grace Hopper, but not of the conference. It looks really awesome! Unfortunately, it’s expensive, starts in the middle of a week of school, and is far enough away that I’d probably need to fly there, and scholarships are closed for this year. It’s co-sponsored by the ACM, which I’ve been meaning to join, so if I do that and start networking with groups like SWE and CSUG (computer science undergraduate council) and ask around in the CS department for a women in computing group (or start one???), then I might have a chance of going before I graduate…
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I don’t know about this particular event, but some conferences sponsor scholarships, or grants may be available.
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Have I mentioned that I knew Dr. Hopper? She worked with my father at the Pentagon for several years. I visited her office a few times one summer when I was typing reports for the Army, and I invited her to give a talk at my college. And she came!
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I think you’ve mentioned it elsewhere– you said she had a Jolly Roger flag over her desk.
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And a little red wagon for stealing surplus supplies people left outside their offices, and a clock that ran counter-clockwise.
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this is basically the best thing I’ve heard all week
I saw this earlier but couldn’t reply because I was at a loss for words because it was so awesome
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I’m liking her already.
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Excellent!
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I think you first mentioned her to me when I posted about an earlier visit to the MOS, but I can’t remember when that was. Can you find it with your GAPA-niscience?
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It was almost exactly two years ago.
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Thank you!
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I talked to one of the people who works in the CS department today about whether there was a group for women in computing. She said that there is, but they usually meet more in the second semester. She also mentioned that the department usually sends a couple grad students and occasionally an undergraduate junior or senior to the Grace Hopper conference, but this year there’s a conference on Big Data here the same weekend and the CS department resources have been going towards that instead, and especially with recent budget cuts, it would be harder to fund activities for students (as opposed to things like research, I guess, since we are a research university.)
So there’s a nonzero chance I could go to the conference in the future!
(She also said there’s 10 female CS freshmen this year which is exciting — there’s maybe four in my year)
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GAPAs, did you get my squid?
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Aye, and I’ll post it after lunch.
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Whoops! I didn’t realize you were in the picture, too. We’ll need parental permission to post that. (Louis, being a cat, doesn’t need permission.)
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I’m back to stay. I have constant internet access now at my aunt’s house. Why my aunt’s house? Glad you asked. I have transferred from my public high school in Indiana to a Jewish high school in Chicago. I already know most of the people from summer camp, but it’s still a big adjustment, as I am coming in as a senior. It is a little strange to encounter Judaism in school, but I like it. Being part of a community of people like me is also nice. I do feel slightly guilty about wanting that part, since in theory I am in favor of meeting people who aren’t like you, and plurality, and all that. This is especially relevant because I now live in Chicago, possibly the most segregated city in the US. I’ll keep you posted about what I think of going to a Jewish school, but I’d still like to hear what you think about being in a community of people like you. To be honest, MuseBlog might also be a little like that. How similar are MuseBloggers in terms of the culture and class they’re brought up in? Also, has anyone else been to a Jewish day school/high school? I know crazyquotescollector did, but I don’t know if she still posts here.
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I’m afraid there’s a certain lack of jewish people in my area. Otherwise, my school is pretty diverse by local standards.
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Well, I went to a Jewish preschool, but I have the feeling that’s not what you’re looking for.
I think being around people who are like you can be extremely comforting. When I lived in Singapore, I was part of a Unitarian Universalist group, and I joined one when I moved back here. However, I stopped going pretty soon after, because I realized that I’m not particularly attracted to Unitarianism as a religion (that sounds weird; I mean that it’s an excellent, extremely tolerant religion, but it’s not for me), as much as I really enjoyed being in a group that consisted mostly of Americans. I think this is why cities with a lot of expats, like Singapore and Jakarta, contain so many different clubs for people of particular nationalities (clubs in the sense of large, imposing buildings in the expat areas, often connected to the embassies: everything from the Swiss Club to the Pakistani Club), as well as schools like the Canadian School or the American School. Once in a while, it’s nice to be somewhere where everyone speaks your language and doesn’t stare at you when you walk into a room.
(I suspect this is not entirely the case for an English-speaker in Chicago, but the point of that rambling paragraph was that it’s normal to want to be around people like you).
I sometimes wonder about that, too. I mean, if we’re usually introduced to MuseBlog through Muse, a lot of us must have parents or relatives with similar enough interests or backgrounds to buy us subscriptions to the same magazine.
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I agree with the second paragraph. I lived for a year in Israel in second grade and I just didn’t bother to learn the language. American kids were the only ones I hung out with. And yes that was a Jewish school, but I did not enjoy that at all. As for the fourth paragraph, I noticed when we did a poll of religions that MB is very Jewish, and I would suspect it is also overwhelmingly white/asian, and most people here probably live in similar economic circumstances. However, we might not be more similar to each other in terms of culture and class than the people in our neighborhood or the people we go to school with.
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I went to a Jewish day school from preschool to 12th grade. My mileage varied depending on my age, and what school I was in at the time (I’ve been to three different ones)
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Oh yes, I knew you were religious. Sorry for forgetting you.
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It’s all right, it’s not like I talk about it all that much around here.
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Hm.
You’re right, MB is a little like that in that we’re all caring, compassionate, intelligent, loving people, and we are all, for lack of a better term, Muserly.
However, we are also very diverse in ways that the Internet doesn’t necessarily show. For example, I am Roman Catholic while a lot of people on here are atheist; I am straight while many people on here are not; I am American while this ‘blog reaches out to many people in different countries; etc, etc. And that’s just off the top of my head, picking out the most obvious differences. But there are similarities: We’re all, I think it is safe to say, what we would call geeky or nerdy; we all care about things as opposed to being annoying trolls; we all enjoy engaging in intelligent conversation.
However, for example, when I’m in a class at church I’m glad to be able to state my beliefs without being shouted at that Christians are all sheep. And as a Catholic who doesn’t necessarily believe that evolution is an Evil False Myth, and also has atheist friends, I’m glad to know that there’s somebody I can mention evolution around without being yelled at that evolution is an Evil False Myth. I’m actually not sure where I was going with that last comparison. It’s not making the point I want it to make. It made sense in my head but on the screen it looks like something that’s going to offend someone and start a flame war.
…I should go to bed.
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I completely concur with what you said at the start, but I wasn’t really talking about personality. The same personality can come from two people from very different circumstances. And I also want to say that I don’t go to MB to find people who have upbringings in common with me. I want them to have personal traits and interests in common with me. But with the Jewish school, I want to be around those people specifically because they were brought up in a particular way. I don’t have more interests in common with my friends in Chicago than in West Lafayette (in fact, I probably have less). Plus, MB will accept someone who is very religious, not from America, straight, very poor (or for that matter, very rich), but my new school will not accept anyone nonjewish.
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This is sort of a tangent off the last question about MuseBloggers, but I started wondering at “nerd camp” this summer how much nerd culture has changed recently, especially since the Internet. I mean, obviously there were things like comic books, TV shows, and movies that people around the world followed, but as far as I know there was nothing resembling this strange, intricate tangle of Internet culture and memes that so many people can partake in from everywhere. It’s amazing to me how people come to my summer camp from Washington, Canada, California, Texas, Ohio, and so forth, and still everybody knows what a “brony” is and how to “rickroll”, there are Homestuck fans everywhere, and counselors have to get on us to make our public graffiti wall more about original work than memes. Would it have been like that even a decade ago, or has there really been as big of a change as I imagine?
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“My poor baby,” I whisper to an evil space Viking in a movie.
In other news, I have been listening to the song “Some Nights” on repeat for roughly three days straight, and have become obsessed with the word “peasant”.
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I assume that by “evil space Viking” you mean Loki?
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Last day of summer, classes start tomorrow, but there was time today for one last blissful-intelligent-sightseeing trip to the New England Aquarium, which, this being a Monday, was well-visited but navigable. I got to pet some of the stingrays, and I found out they have a mucus on their skin that’s like natural Neosporn and helps then heal cuts and scratches quickly– an ability I’d want, given my general clumsiness!
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The one bad thing about my job is that I have to serve cooked squid. It’s a little traumatizing.
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I’m currently rereading Inkspell. This morning, when I flipped to the page I was on, I thought; “How can I have read that many pages already? I haven’t read that long!” Then I finished the last four pages of chapter thirty-one.
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I will admit there is one Disney sequel I really hope gets made– Roving Mars 2: Driven by Curiosity.
(For those who don’t get it, Roving Mars is the IMAX film about Spirit and Opportunity that was produced by Disney in 2006.)
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I remember watching that! And I do hope they make a sequel with Curiosity.
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I came across something I wanted to share with you all–it could go on the Warm Fuzzies thread or even the Coping thread but I’ll just put it here. As per the Rules, I won’t post a direct link, but search for “The Nicest Place on the Internet”. *hugs*
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That instantly put a smile on my face!
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Oh, wow! ♥
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That’s so nice
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And that day, many hugs were had.
D’aww.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Piggy.
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More unpacked! Perhaps even mostly unpacked. First day of classes tomorrow–Evolution in the morning, and my Mineralogy and Optic Crystallography lab in the afternoon.
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So tired.
Can’t I just curl up on my cozy quilt in my lovely flannel shirt and smell the rain and trees out my window and sleep forever while listening to the Be Good Tanyas?
No, because Archaeology.
*sigh*
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I’m a big promoter of 20-minute naps.
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I managed to get an 8-minute one. That counts, yeah?
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It’s at least 40 percent as good.
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I am daydreaming about naps right now.
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I got ten hours of sleep last night and I was still tired all through biology class.
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This morning I woke up at~4am remembering I had some last-minute homework to do before I went to school. When I went back to sleep I vaguely remember thinking, “Sleep is the best thing ever and I just want to sleep forever and ever. I want to get a job where all I have to do is sleep.”
I was completely serious. That feeling of loving sleep just persisted through all my dreams.
It felt like someone had brainwashed me into wanting to sleep. I had an ardent passion for sleep.
This sounds really weird.
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Happens all the time.
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Today I was practicing the organ when I got a text inviting me to dinner (I had lost track of time) so I packed up my stuff and headed for the exit. Approaching the glass doors, I saw that it was still nice and sunny out, just as it had been all day. I opened the doors and started walking back to my dorm, and it started sprinkling. Then raining. Then pouring. All without a single break in the sunniness. Naturally, I had neither jacket nor umbrella, so I–along with everyone else on campus–scurried from tree to tree as I made my way back, very wet but also kind of gleefully amazed. It was the kind of atmosphere that inspires you to make eye contact with strangers while the both of you smile and shake your heads in contented disbelief.
Ah–I’m looking out my window and it looks like it’s raining again. Still sunny. I think I’ll go for a walk.
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First day of Archeological Remote Sensing class: where being an astronomy enthusiast pays off because you can answer all of the professor’s questions about the electromagnetic spectrum.
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I find the “Fredo” in the comic panel funny, because I’m so used to that as Fred Haise’s nickname.
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Here’s something fun. Do a quick web search for “I side with”. It’s the first result. Basically, you fill out a quick quiz, and it compares your views to that of the various presidential candidates.
I, apparently, side 75% with Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate.
And 0% with Romney 
An interesting aspect of this quiz is that you can see your results after the quiz and click the names of the candidates. It’ll drop down a list of the quiz questions, and you can see exactly what you picked compared to the candidate’s view on it.
You can also share your results, meaning that other people can click the candidate’s names and see what YOU agree with them on, question by question, foreign policy to healthcare, etc.
My link is here [if it goes through] if you’d like to see my views on things. A nice bullet-point quiz is a lot faster than typing it out.
isidewith . com/results/86902408
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I got 89% Jill Stein and 87% Obama (and 8% Romney, on “no major issues”. Dunno how that happened).
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Yeah, the poll does have a few conflict errors – it told me I disagreed with a candidate on something when in reality I’d answered a question almost exactly the same way he did.
It’s still really good, though.
One of my friends tried it, too. He ended up with a 90% agreement rate to me.
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I sided 95% Green Party.
I couldn’t really decided what any of my stances on foreign policy, money issues, etc. were.
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79% with Gary Johnson, 77% with Romney, 66% with Jill Stein, 54% with Obama. It seems to break down the issues pretty well, as much as a multiple-choice quiz can do. I think the question-by-question results are quite a bit more important than the percentages, though; Gary Johnson isn’t someone I personally plan to vote for.
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Yeah, I got something like 90% for Jill Stein, and then 70-ish% percent for Rocky Anderson and Barack Obama.
I would like to reiterate my disappointment in the choice of candidates who can actually win the election.
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This time I took the test, Obama 89%, Stein 79%, Anderson 78%, Johnson 58%, Romney 30%
Previously when I’ve taken this same test, I’ve gotten Stein as my candidate, Obama just below her, and Romney at 2%. So I guess I vary a lot
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I’ll probably never vote in an American election, but I was curious. 80% with Jill Stein (of whom I’d never heard before this; I’m no expert in politics in the States), 76% Gary Johnson (likewise), 72% Obama, 30% Romney.
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Interesting! I apparently side 91% with Jill Stein (I’ve never heard of her, but I looked her up, and she seems like a good candidate; I wish she had a chance), 71% with Obama (I’d consider that estimate a tad high), 51% with Rocky Anderson (but on 5 of the issues it said we disagreed on, he hadn’t given a stance, and 2 of them were things that had been the same with Stein except that with her it had called our answers similar, and by the way, I haven’t heard of him, either), 44% with Gary Johnson (who I’ve never heard of), 5% with Romney, and 1% with Virgil Goode (I’ve never heard of him, but if he had any chance of getting elected, he would scare me; he denies evolution and global warming, apparently, and he doesn’t even think abortions should be legal when the mother’s life is in danger). As for party, I’m apparently 89% Green (not higher?), 82% Democratic, 13% Libertarian, and 8% Republican.
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I had to shut my computer down, so I don’t know. Is there something wrong with the website?
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I got 87% Jill Stein (hmm, I should find out who she is), 80% Barack Obama, 68% Gary Johnson, and 31% Mitt Romney (no major issues). I agree 62% with Washington voters (surely less with this side of the state, though), and 59% with American voters.
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First day of classes… went pretty well. Have so much to get done. Have not done enough. Have messed around avoiding work instead x_x
But I am getting textbooks from the internet right now because I already BOUGHT it once but they LIED to me about what classes I had to take and no way am I spending $200 on a book I already bought from them once. Especially since they only bought it back for $60. So that’s a two-layer cake I’m not going to go through again. And found a different book I need online for $12, including expedited shipping/tracking, instead of $130. Woo! And I think I can find the other book or two I need as pdf’s free online as well so I can just use my nook/computer instead of paying money…
x_x college why you so expensive
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*pounces on thread*
IT’S MY BIRTHDAY so I baked brownies, received presents at school, ran around like a madwoman with my assignments, and went out for dinner with my mom at the Cheesecake Factory (I had never been to a Cheesecake Factory before, but they are seriously the best places ever). Oh my lord so much food you would not believe it.
I have been doing ALL the awesome things recently, including:
-On Saturday night, I went to a medieval Robin Hood-themed ball, and there were amazing costumes, and this band called Avalon Rising played, and a man who looked like Captain Hammer taught me to waltz.
-On Friday night, I went to see a production of King Lear in a clearing in the woods. It was absolutely heart-wrenching (also, the eye-gouging scene was kind of intense).
-Two Friday nights ago, I went to the above company’s production of Pericles, staged- wait for it- in outer space. There were choreographed light saber fights and a Red Shirt messenger and Doctor Who references and a Klingon and the woods were cold and dark and lovely.
-In the meantime, AP Euro is awesome, but everyone is named Charles.
This has been an update.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY (AGAIN) DARLING
As someone also taking AP Euro right now, I can verify the truth of this statement. Not enough ladies, too many Charleses. Also, lots of people dying in gruesome ways. (Some of them involve ropes of thorns, or terrible things happening to ribcages, or barrels. None of them are nice.)
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As someone who took AP Euro last year, I concur. The Defenestration of Prague is a particularly nasty one, speaking of dying in gruesome ways.
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I fourth this statement. There also seemed to be a bunch of Henries? History is quite bloody…
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Yesterday, I was unnerved to read that the conquistadors ate pickled chihuahua.
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I’d say that’s only mildly unnerving, compared to the conquistadors’ other habits (e.g. pouring gold down people’s throats).
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True, the pickled chihuahua only unnerved me as much as it did because I hadn’t heard of it before and wasn’t expecting it.
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There are people today who eat dogs and cats, though. And when you think about it, there isn’t any reason why they have any more right not to be eaten than other animals, and you probably aren’t especially unnerved whenever you hear about people eating meat. (If you are, than this comment is probably mostly irrelevant).
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Pouring a molten (and not to mention expensive) metal down someone’s throat isn’t my definition of fun.
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Defenestration of… Is that what it sounds like?!
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Well, four Catholic regents were pushed out of a window (they survived!), rather than, um, all of Prague. But it was indeed a defenestration! Also, the regents were representing the Holy Roman Emperor at the time, Ferdinand II. So the whole thing set off revolts in Bohemia, which, through a series of events I don’t understand (we haven’t gotten that far yet; don’t judge me) sparked the Thirty Years’ War. Which kind of screwed up a lot of central Europe.
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Apparently they landed on a dung heap, of all things.
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Presumably dung heaps were more common in urban areas in 1618 than they are today.
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So when I try to take over the world, I should set up HQ in Greece to help prevent a fatal defenestration?
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If my friends and I had been un-lazy enough to put together AP Euro T-shirts at the end of my sophomore year, we were planning for the Defenestration of Prague to be a main feature. Except possibly with our teacher instead of important Catholics. (Don’t worry, we like her – all in good fun.)
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Do they translate the Karls to Charles as well?
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I had a Spanish book that translated Juana la Loca to “Jane the Crazy”, which just sounds silly. I prefer “Juana the Mad”.
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Wait until you get to Prussia: they’re all Wilhelm/William.
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Guess what guys, I had the best day ever today with my friends! After being down for the past few days, I feel spectacular! (I didn’t rant about it here on museblog cause I don’t think anyone listens to school/grade related rants)
I will explain how the day was but since I did so much I’m just gonna copy and paste what I said to Eevee with a few alterations. (keeping within the boundaries of museblog)
“Ok so basically we went to a pakastani restraunt and ate chicken masala and brain masala. (we is me, , , and ) then we went to quarry lakes and walked along it till we got to a new park and we tight roped on a low rope and swung in a circle on one if those rotating umbrella things at the park, sat down and talkes about, then walked to the geese and ducks and fed then cat tails which they kept thinking was bread repeatedly and followed us very far away. Like twenty or geese followed. Also we saw a duck with an afro! And then we walked back and got lost till we found the pakastani restraunt again.then my mom drove us to a japanese store where we got milk tea . That was good :3 and then we all went home. So yea!”
Now to clear some things up, I wasn’t trying to be mean to the geese, at first I thought it was amusing but then I walked off and left a trail of cat tail fluff cause I liked pulling the fuzz off and found out the geese were following us again. And it was amusing so I continued…
the milk tea was a big thing for me cause it was my first time trying it!
2 friends that came were boys and one was a girl (Eevee, I am not cheating on yo!)
So yeah! It was awesome. I think this is good cause I relaxed with my friends the day before school starts, for a good start!
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It’s nice to have you happy.
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I FEEL UNSTOPPABLE!!!
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You ate brain masala?! 
What was that like?
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It taste wonderful! You should try it!
It’s basically goat brain cooked with spices and other things. It is so tender, and soft. There is no other meat like it! You have to taste it to see what I mean although one of my friends didn’t like it. But you should still try it!
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…
*Moves away slowly*
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I think I’m too worried about prions to eat the brains of anything.
Also, Areohawk, everyone’s going to think that you’re a zombie.
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He is a Swalot, isn’t he? Isn’t that a Pokemon that likes to eat things?
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I won’t judge it, but i don’t think I would eat it. Sounds a little good
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Prions are freaky.
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Prions are terrifying.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it, although I’m actually vegan, so I don’t intend to try it myself.
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Ah, I see. Sorry, I did not know that.
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Chok- Happy birthday!
I am brain dead right now. My body is not used to waking up and functioning this early. *collapses*
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I feel your pain so much. :,O
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DEAR MUSEBLOG: FREE TEA
http:// www. twiningsusa.com/pantry/index.php
If it is deemed acceptable by the GAPA(s). Link pilfered from Oxlin.
I’m trying Irish Breakfast, Pomegranate Delight, and Pomegranate and Raspberry.
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Ohhhh my gosh. Thanks, Jade! I ordered Chai, Christmas, and Orange Ceylon Pekoe.
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They do this pretty often, and I’ve heard a lot of people say they never received their tea, so try not to hold your breath too much. By all means, order some–I did–but don’t be flabbergasted if it doesn’t arrive. Limited supplies or something.
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SO HAPPY.
M diet is about 25% tea. The rest is pickles.
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POTATOES AND CHOCOLATE FOR MEEEEEEEEEE
Plus artichokes marinated in oil.
When I drink something that isn’t water, it’s most likely to be tea. <3
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I think I ordered lemon ginger, honeybush and orange, and pumpkin chai.
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Yes! They have Fair Trade Certified teas!
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My walk home from the bus stop today was full of bugs.
First I saw a couple of big larvae on the thing where the sidewalk meets the road on the corner that isn’t quite a gutter (I’m not sure what it’s called). They were about half an inch wide and an inch and a half long, and a nearly translucent white with gray rear ends. Their legs were reddish-brown, their mandibles were darker brown, and they had a neat row of orange-brown spiracles down each side. But the most surprising thing was that, while one was curled up on its side, the other was upside-down and wiggling along on its back! At first I thought it was just trying to get back upright, but when I took a closer look, I realized that it wasn’t just wiggling in place. It was motoring. It wiggled along with its feet in the air like that was the most natural thing in the world for it, and man was it fast! I tried flipping it over, like I do for beetles that get stuck upside-down, and it took a few slow and hesitant steps on its legs before flipping itself back upside-down and resuming its frenetic wiggling. Then I noticed another, identical, larva doing the same thing. Have any of you ever seen something like this?
A little further along, I stopped for a dark brown, fuzzy caterpillar with a light stripe down its back that crossed my path. Most caterpillars either walk with their bodies flat, or they hunch up and un-hunch like the proverbial inchworm when they walk. This one undulated as it walked, like a snake slithering, but up and down instead of side to side. And it was going almost twice as fast as the larva I mentioned previously, so the undulating looked really cool.
When I was almost home, I saw a bunch of tiny white flowers, one of which was being pollinated by a bumble bee, one by a fly, and three more by three different kinds of wasps. All at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was amazing.
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During my senior pictures on Monday, there was a little wooly caterpillar on the tree I was posing with! It was even orange and black, my school colors!
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Sorry I’ve been a bit inactive this past week or so, but on Friday we arrived in England and it’s been quite chaotic since then – I only managed to figure out this afternoon how the internet works in my room. School started yesterday, but we only had meetings and timetabling and such, so lessons start tomorrow. It’s very odd being in a boarding school because I’ve never boarded, and I’ve never been to a new school. I don’t think it’s easy. I really miss home (I cried so hard the night before my parents left, and I’ve teared up a few times reading my mum’s emails and when Skyping her and such.) Everyone in my House is nice though, and I think/I hope I’ll get used to this soon. Right now it still feels like I’m here for a camp or something which will only last a few weeks, so it’s quite weird to think I’ll be here for most of the next two years.
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Also, may I just say that I’m so grateful for MuseBlog. At the moment it feels like I’ve been thrown into another universe; I feel so very far away from everything I’ve known (it feels a bit like a new life). So thank you for still being here!
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Awww, my Selly! *hug* Homesickness is the worst. Your school sounds amazing, though. Good luck with the adjustment!
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*hugs Sel and gives companion squids*
Your school sounds wonderful, and I hope the homesickness diminishes soon. We’ll always be here for you!
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So you’re dominating more than one world? Impressive!
That must be hard to adjust too though. Best of luck. *hug*
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I’m sorry you’re missing home, Selenium. *hugs* I hope it gets better with time. I’m glad you have nice people, though, and that it’s a good school.
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First day of school! I have the 4 APs and 1 Honors I asked for, but of course I want to drop out of AP Chem anyways (which is why I did not do the homework, but maybe I should anyways).
I have a lot of feelings. I kind of want to keep those feelings just to myself for the moment, but I also kind of want to tell people. Well, I don’t know yet, I’ll see. I just want to sleep right now.
/incoherency wheeeeeeeee
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We’re here to listen if you decide you do want to tell us. I will add that in those sorts of situations, I personally find it useful to write a post about it even if I don’t hit Comment.
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1. I was elected Tech Services Director for the upcoming semester, which means I get to do fun things like plan seminars and network with the CS department and University IT and run our tech support program. And it’s no longer my problem if the servers go down!
2. I took a picture gazing into Alan Turing’s eyes, I will send it when I don’t have class in half an hour and a distinct lack of non-pajama clothing.
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picture is sent!
(from my school address, not this one, GAPAs)
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First day of classes was today! I had four (75-minute) lessons, out of five AS subjects. I must say, after having lessons I generally feel a lot happier. I still miss home but I think going to classes and the whole academic setting made things feel more normal.
I’ve met about half my teachers (we have two teachers per subject) and so far they all seem nice. So far they haven’t assigned much prep (homework), just some reading, though I’m sure that will change and before I know it I’ll be busier than possible.
Class sizes are small, which is great – in History, Econ and Gov/Pol there are about eight people, and in Music there are three. We’ll have to see about French tomorrow. As well, I’m quite happy that I’ve already received a commendation in History.
It is actually such a pleasure to be taking only subjects I’ve chosen, because it means I’m finding everything so much more interesting and worth studying than with other subjects that I might not have liked or been good at.
It is pretty odd having Chapel (though not a very long one) every morning, in tradition C of E fashion with hymns and readings and prayer and such. (Irrelevantly, our Headmistress’s husband is a Lord.)
The Music Department has already put me in orchestras and chamber groups and such, so that’s going to keep my schedule very busy. They will probably want me to join one of the choirs as well, even though my voice isn’t anything special. I’m thinking not Chapel Choir, but possibly a choir that performs one large work (a requiem, for example) with Eton.
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Yay! That sounds really amazing.
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Yes, so far I’m really liking it!
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I’m glad you’re enjoying it. 75-minute lessons would suck if you had a class you disliked.
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First of all: Ed Sheeran.
Secondly…
No, there isn’t anything else. Just Ed Sheeran.
Have a nice day.
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Today in Archeological Remote Sensing, we talked about bit depth and how it affects the colors a sensor can register and display and I felt incredibly smart for having taken Introduction to Computer Science last semester and covered similar ground there!
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Somebody hung up signs all over the school with little tear-off slips with puns on them. The sign said, “These are tearable puns.”
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Mine said “If you’ve seen one shopping center, you’ve seen the mall.”
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Bad puns, good idea.
I should try that.
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Classes went really smoothly today; my mentor class took our fourth- and last-annual group picture; the district tech support people were surprisingly human; I went into office hours for math and finally understood sequences and series; we won our soccer game 3-0 and I had an assist; a friend’s car caught on fire down in the JV parking lot; I got a chocolate raspberry cupcake for a teammate’s birthday; our NHS executives meeting was smooth and productive; someone messaged me right as I was thinking of him; we found kittens in our garage and we don’t even have a cat; we only have two in a box and the mother and other two kittens are somewhere else; I don’t know what will happen with them or if any of them will survive; my Skype stopped working and required extensive fixing; I video-chatted with my camp/online school friend and showed her the kittens; my brother and I talked about our days; I was all ready to go to bed, and I found out that my best friend’s parents are probably separating.
Yeah. Emotional whiplash.
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Holy cake.
*hugs* That seems like… overload. Wow. Well, at least there were some good things.
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Honestly, most of it was good. It was just the bad news right at the end that left me feeling sort of lonely last night.
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So I was changing in the bathroom at school.
“DL!! Hurry up!!” My friend shouts.
“Sorry, I’m hurrying!” I yell back.
“Fine.”
“AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”
“DL? Are you OK?”
“Yep. I almost fell in the toilet. But its all good.”
So, that’s how my day went.
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Yesterday after classes and work I had rehearsal, then I went contra dancing until ~11, then I ended up going down to the river with some freshmen for a bit. I felt vaguely old, but it was a lot of fun. Then up again at 7:15 to go to classes at 8. Now I’m at work (heh oops), and SO TIRED. But not actually as bad as I was anticipating, so that’s good.
I just made the mistake of humming a few bits of some of the songs we sang on the Clearwater about the Hudson river, and now I’m going through yet another spell of mountain-claustrophobia. And also just general school claustrophobia. I know I want to be in college, I know I want to graduate, and I know I’m definitely doing things by getting educated, and I love that. I really do. I know four years is such a short amount of time and I despair that no person can possibly get even a taste of ALL the things that there are to offer here where I am.
But at the same time, I want to get out and do non-school things, and having a strict schedule and deadlines and chapters to read and papers to write and presentations to research makes that hard.
*sigh*
(Also, yes I know that everything is connected and I’m around the same water that will eventually get to the navigable waterways and be sailed upon by my comrades, and I love the mountains. I really do. The smell of dirt and the fog being trapped in the valley in the mornings and the hugely variable weather and the constant rain and the trees everywhere and the cool rocks….I love everywhere I go, but I have an insatiable desire to always be somewhere new, which makes me wonder if I can ever be content in one place for very long. I’ve been becoming more and more of a gypsy.)
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Good thing you’re going to be a sailor.
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They make “Ravenclaws for Obama” t-shirts.
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“Gryffindors For Romney”
No, I don’t like him.
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Actually, they make ‘for Obama’ shirts for all 4 Houses, including Gryffindor. It’s a great idea, except that there are people who hate certain Houses and would use the fact that people of a House they consider evil or stupid supported Obama in a (fallacious!) ad hominem argument against him.
That’s part of why I don’t have a “Hufflepuffs for Obama” shirt, although there are other reasons, too.
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I need one of these.
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I almost got a people who go to my school for Obama shirt the other day. (Um, obviously saying the name of the school, but, yeah, not putting that here.) But there are a bunch of good ones I’ve seen. There was a “Nerdfighters for Obama” shirt too.
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Last night there was this phenomenally loud clap of thunder—like “a train has just collided with the building” loud—and then this morning I woke up to discover that College Hall had been struck by lightning and caught on fire. And the old bell may or may not have fallen through the roof.
No one was injured, fortunately, since this happened at like one in the morning.
When I said I wanted to start the year off with a bang, this really wasn’t what I meant…
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For my biology project, I think I’m going to try to crochet a ribosome.
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I want pictures of the finished masterpiece!
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Me too XD
Sounds difficult though…….You sure you don’t want to make it a vampire ribosome?
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Pics please? Please?
</bambi_eyes
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Alright, I’ll send in pics when I’m done. (It seems now I have no choice– I have to make this, don’t I? XD) And, L, if I find anything in my research about vampiric ribosomes in eukaryotes, I’ll be sure to crochet one of those, too.
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I’m going to a hyperbolic crochet class tomorrow!
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I made three more squids. I think I may be obsessed.
Another one is in the works.
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Hello, MuseBlog.
I came to say goodbye.
I promise I’ll be back someday, though I don’t know when. I’ll be thinking a lot about you guys because I love you all so, so much, beyond what words can adequately express, but I feel like I may need to take a little break from some of the things that make up my life.
MuseBlog is very important to me, and all of you as individuals are as well. You guys constantly comfort me and provide endless inspiration and intellect which I admire infinitely. I can’t exactly explain why I am temporarily leaving, because it’s mostly a jumble of nondescript feelings, but I hope you understand.
MuseBlog has been a home for me, and you guys my family. But I feel like this is the year for me to venturing out of my comfort zone, so that I can learn in novel ways.
I love you. I’ll be back, as I promised and will promise again.
Take care, everyone.
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*bawls* You take care too, Large Interstellar Cephalopod. Come back as soon as you think you can. *waves handkerchief*
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I understand why you need to leave, my friend, but please please PLEASE come back soon! *farewell pies* 
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*Cskia! Oh, I will miss you! Fare thee well, be blessed in your endeavors, and know you’re always welcome here. Have some virtual delectable edibles for the road.
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Good luck with your endeavors, and I’ll see you around whenever you return!
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*Cskia! My blogsister! You were always so good to me!
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re leaving. I will miss you dearly.
Please come back as soon as you can. You brought much joy to the ‘blog.
*sobs*
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Oh no. 
I’ll miss you more than I can possibly say. Your presence on the blog has been incredible, and it’ll be worse without you. I do understand why you’re leaving, and I hope that whatever you’re looking for out there, you’ll find it. Until then, I guess this is goodbye.
Good luck. We love you. *hug*
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Cskia! We’ll miss you a lot, but I’m glad you’ve decided on something that will help you. Please come back soon! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ *squiddiest hug ever*
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I will miss you, *Cskia! Come back soon!
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*Cskia, I will miss having you on the ‘Blog more than words can say, but I hope this hiatus serves you well. Come back as soon as you feel you are ready to, and we’ll always be ready to welcome you back. Farewell!
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I’ll miss you more than I can tell you, my wife and blogsister. You’ve brought so much to the blog and to me. I wish you the best of luck in everything; please do come back as soon as you’re ready.
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I get that feeling too. Farewell, galactic cephalopod!
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I’ll miss you, Cskia! You have brought so much light into all of our lives. As much as it makes me sad to miss that for a while, I hope this break will help you with your own life. Good luck with everything, and please, please, come back soon!
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Go enjoy yourself and be productive and do good things!
But come back and take us with you.
I’ll miss you and all of your unique quirkiness and wonderful art and general awesomeness.
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*nooooo* I’ve felt like that, a little of it in relation to MB, and I want you to do what’s best for you. I hope you find great things out there. I’ll miss you. *farewell hug*
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I have decided that today is Self-care Sunday. As such, I am in bed enjoying the gorgeous morning light, listening to Pete Seeger, and drinking tea because I suddenly have a sore throat.
70 (*Cskia)~ You’re a great person, I look forward to hearing about your adventures when you return. Safe travels through the universe, squid-sister! ♥
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Hello hello! So I say that I will try to be more internet active… and then I haul myself overseas and barely have internet access for ages. And now I’m posting from PB&J’s house
I just mentioned this to him and he responded as follows:
“Tell them I’m busy washing up and making TEA.” and “I shall stay clear of moderating it.”
I don’t know what else to say. England is lovely. Which is weird, because I was expecting less glorious sun and more monsoons. But there you have it.
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Hi, Mel! The glorious sun is atypical and likely to be ephemeral. Enjoy it while you can!
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Hi! I have been told that I’ve gone on holiday for the entire duration of English summer. A three-day summer. Not bad, I suppose. But I’m taking Paul’s word on it. Has Autumn hit the East Coast yet?
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It arrived here yesterday. A cold front swept though in late afternoon, driving away the hot, soupy air of summer. Now it’s clear, crisp, and cool, definitely autumnal weather.
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Hurray! And, aww, now I’m going to get all sorts of homesick. It’s always lovely when there’s a breeze and the barometric pressure has dropped, and it’s overcast, and the leaves… okay I need to stop before I grow too wistful.
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I’m just dropping in briefly to point out that it is now raining. Again. England is living up to expectations, and all is well with the world. I must now go and put the kettle on.
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I know! It started pouring just as we were supposed to take a whole school photo, which will now have to be postponed.
The weather for the past week had been absolutely lovely though; I even did some prep outside in the grass yesterday. Although now it is starting to feel more like the England I’m used to (plus, I’ve just come from tea and scones with the head of sixth form.)
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Maybe I should already know this, but what is it that you’re doing in England? (And without being too specific, which part of the country are you in?)
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We’re in the West Midlands. I don’t think that’s too specific? I don’t know if mentioning we’re a little ways away from the Birmingham area is? Sorry, I’m not yet overly familiar with the British Isles…
I’m visiting Paul before I move to uni housing. I’m taking my postgraduate degrees up in the northeast. Where, fortunately, there is proper rain and wind.
And you? I’m guessing you’re originally English? I am not and I sometimes get words wrong.
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I’m in Bucks, about forty minutes west of London (similarly, I’m not sure if that’s too specific.)
Yes, I am English. (Well, technically half.)
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Aww, that’s so far South. Though I think Paul plays down that way on occasion, you guys could totally do an ad hoc Kokon sometime~
English enough to speak Proper England English anyway, I guess I say things and people repeat them in different accents, and I’m never sure if they’re making sure they’ve got what I’ve said, or if they’re trying to correct me…
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It is fairly south, though not as south as, say, Dorset. An English Kokon would be lovely!
I believe I sound English, yes. My mother, though her English is near-perfect, had such a difficult time when she and my sister got on the wrong Tube line two summers ago – she couldn’t understand a word the conductors were saying in their strong London accents. I don’t think most Brits will have trouble understanding an American (I assume) accent.
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I do occasionally play down South, but I’m usually whizzing in, playing at people, and whizzing out again. But if you and assorted parental units happen to find yourselves in a vaguely Midlandish area, let me know and we’ll meet up.
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Yesterday, I was taking photos of the T. rex model outside of the Museum of Science when a Duck Tour vehicle came by and the driver said (pointing at the T. rex) “… the biggest statue of my mother-in-law in North America.”
I giggled.
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I have a coffeemaker now! It’s a really cheap and horrible one, but it’s more than what I had previously. I got some Kenya AA from my favorite roaster to inaugurate the machine. Just brewed the first batch: it tastes burnt. I’ll try a lower grounds-to-water ratio tomorrow because I’m pretty sure it’s not the beans themselves.
I went home this weekend because yesterday, as has been the family tradition for longer than I’ve been alive, we went to a thing called Carstens Farm Days near Shelby, Iowa. The basic gist of it is that an immigrant farmer and his wife back in 1880 donated their land and buildings to a historical society because they didn’t want it to be divided up and sold, and now once a year there’s a big festival there–tours of the original house, dozens and dozens of old tractors and antique cars that people bring in, blacksmithing, potato picking, threshing, a quilt show, live music, food, the works. Even though the music is awful and I always get dust in my eye and there’s never anywhere to sit, it’s one of my favorite things in the world.
And this morning I baked some pumpkin bread. I guess that means summer is officially over, even though it doesn’t quite smell like autumn yet.
Life is busy lately. The music minor’s going well, and I really love being in a choir. The choir director thanked me for my leadership (?) and said that it usually looks like I’m really concentrating on singing but once in a while a wry grin crosses my face and so he knows that I’m appreciating his jokes. Still working on Japanese, for those of you keeping score at home. I’ve…sort of neglected it since school started, but I’m getting back on track today so I’ll be done with my kanji goal in two weeks, at which point the real studying will begin.
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I just got back from a book signing for Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. When I told Cory Doctorow about the time I went as him for Halloween, he high-fived me and asked me to send pictures. So that was pretty awesome.
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I AM SO JEALOUS envious.
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I met him on the subway once! He’s a cool dude.
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Doctorow or Stross?
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so I sent pictures
and Cory Doctorow replied within five minutes and said it was awesome
asdfkhasdfhasdfkhlk
I don’t even have words
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Wait, isn’t he the guy with the cape who flies around in a hot-air balloon in the blogosphere? Or have I just been reading too much xkcd?
(Silly spellcheck, of course blogosphere is a word.)
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He does. He also writes books.
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I’m partially teary eyed right now.
Cskia has changed herself so drastically over the past few days.
She has told me that she well no longer complain about anything anymore and that she will rely only on herself and on nobody else.
She apparently doesnt have as much as emotion anymore either. But she tells me that it is alot easier to smile nowadays since her change.
She refuses to go back to the way she was either.
The reason she changed was cause she doesnt want to hurt anyone anymore. One of which was me with her ranting and so on. I was usually only upset that she was upset.
This wasnt the Eevee I had developed a thriving relation with.
I am now crying at the end of this. If this continues, I might just stop being friends because she isnt who she used to be anymore.
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If the reason she changed is because she wanted to stop hurting people, she might want to know that the change is hurting you.
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Areohawk, I know this must be painful and bewildering for you, but give her some time and space. It sounds as if *Cskia may be trying to will herself into being someone else, which is a difficult pose to hold for long. Whatever the case, she clearly has some confusion of her own to work through, and some people feel the need to retreat from the familiar in order to find clarity. Some other people are more likely to immerse themselves in the familiar. Different people have different strategies, and it’s often hard for us to understand when someone we care about chooses a method that takes en away from us. So for now, it’s okay to grieve, but don’t let that stop you from filling your own life. It may help to turn your focus outward for awhile—doing things you enjoy, doing favors for people in need, whatever engages you with the outer world and distracts you from turning inward too much.
.
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This is Mr. New Vegas, signing off.
Just kidding, I’m not going anywhere. My love for you is too strong.
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Curled up in bed with a nice cup of tea and a book. I can’t recall the last time I spent a school night like this.
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It’s World Suicide Prevention Day today; hug a friend, thank a counselor, and reach out to someone who looks like they’re only doing okay.
I’m serious about this. Even if it’s someone you’re not super close with (or even know at all), never feel under-qualified to reach out to people.
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I am all for reaching out to people
but lots of people are doing things in support of To Write Love On Her Arms today
and they are actually a /really bad/ organization to support
I just wanted to let people know about that
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That’s a pretty broad condemnation to make without presenting some evidence of what you mean by “really bad.” Could you give us some specifics?
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I don’t have any data on hand and am leaving for a class on sharks in a moment but from what I’ve heard they keep up to 75% of the money as profit and are pretty homophobic
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I don’t think I’m allowed to post links so here’s some quotes with commentary
From TWLOHA’s FAQ:
“This is a project for broken people, and it is led by broken people. ”
I actually find it really offensive for one person to say that lots of people are “broken” because of an entirely valid way of feeling. I have self-injured in the past, I am still sometimes tempted to, but that does not make me broken.
One of the people running TWLOHA sent an email to someone online who posted it on their blog, here is a quote from the email with their commentary:
“‘As for homophobia, i think we’ve made it very clear lately that we exist to serve all people, regardless of beliefs or lifestyle choices. […]’
Homosexuality isn’t a belief or a lifestyle choice and associating it with either is in itself heteronormative and homophobic. It is a sexual orientation, and regardless of how nice you are to the LGBT community now, that does not erase the fact you funded organisations that exorcised gay people, and believed that their sexual identity could be reversed with therapy. ”
Re: their funding of those organizations, from TWLOHA’s FAQ again:
“In the beginning TWLOHA donated to Mercy Ministries and Teen Challenge but has since dissolved relationships with both organizations. ”
I don’t want to donate to people who ever thought that it was OK to spend money that people gave them to help prevent self-injury by giving it to anti-gay organizations.
Also, writing “love” on your wrist does what, exactly? I guess it’s supposed to raise awareness? I honestly don’t think that writing on yourself does anything except make you feel like you’ve done something to help the cause when you haven’t. (Also, the wrists are such a dangerous place to cut. And writing something on your wrist makes it seem like that’s the normal place to hurt yourself.)
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and Google just sent me (as a female Android Camper) an email about how they still had applications open to fund a trip to the Grace Hopper conference this October
no guarantees I’ll get in but my chances are no longer at 0% for this year
this is the best week ever
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why was this a reply to this
oh wordpress
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I heard there was a secret chord / that David played and it was really out of tune and adsslsjlsdsdflkdsflk story of my life
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Holy cake I had a weird day.
Got up, went to school, went to Camp [snip], fell down a lot, tried to scale the climbing wall, got some minor heatstroke before the attempt, and then had to lie down in the shade for several hours afterward.
On the positive side, I took a nap.
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According to my school’s calendar, September 11th is “Patriotism Day,” December 25th is a “Joyous Winter Holiday,” and the Friday before Easter is “Spring Day.”
Not sure why I find these re-namings funny, but I do. Our orchestra and choir also have a “December Concert,” which our conductor informs us are a paragon of diversity (read: they threw in I Have a Little Dreidel between the Christmas songs).
I don’t quite understand why 9/11 should make us feel patriotic, either. But anyway.
I’m trying to come up with a name for my imaginary dream restaurant! Have you any suggestions?
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What kind of restaurant is it?
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A small, cozy, hippie-type place with newspapers, photographs of faraway places, and slightly crazed murals lining the walls and soft lighting, located on a steep hill in a perpetually rainy place. The menu consists, so far, of gnocchi with cilantro-chili pesto, homemade pasta, bruschetta, red velvet cupcakes with rainbow icing, these things that are basically sufganiyas with chocolate instead of jam, vegan cupcakes, peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies, brownies with caramel, onigiri (Cat, I swear I’ve gotten better at these), milk tea, julebis, vegetable dumplings, and fried tofu. The peculiar menu is basically because these are the things I can make without setting something on fire.
So, in summary, a me restaurant.
(This is how I spend my time in class, if you’re wondering.)
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I would like to help you run this restaurant. I can make chocolate chip cookies, matzo ball soup, and quesadillas with relative competency. Also I can help set up poetry readings. (Also your onigiri were delicious the last time, if they are even better now I will be thrilled.)
So basically it seems like the menu breaks down into Italian Food, Things That Could Vaguely Be Considered Asian Even Though They Come From Fairly Different Parts Of Asia, Things With Chocolate In Them, and Cupcakes? And the setting sounds like half the places we ended up eating breakfast at in Peru.
Maybe you could call it Wayside, because then it not only gives the impression of being multicultural and a comfortable place for travelers (as in, by the wayside of a road), as well as slightly out of the pattern of normality (if anyone’s ever read the Wayside School books) but on the border of things. The Italian word for “wayside”, margine, more literally means edge or rim. I think restaurants are the perfect places to be on the edges of things.
Or, if you want to be Gaiman-inspired, you could call it World’s End. Which is also a lovely name for a restaurant.
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Thank you Cat! Okay. Co-chefs. This is perfect.
(Except I probably make matzo balls differently than you do, and so in the fine tradition of Jewish grandmas everywhere, we’ll have a long and drawn-out war over which recipe is better.)
Yes on the poetry readings! Yes on the food! I really like “World’s End” as a restaurant name, actually. Could we go with that?
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I personally like World’s End better, too! It’s from the Sandman comic books, so if Neil Gaiman does sue us at any point we’ll have to give credit to him. In canon, it’s an inn that exists independent of any particular kingdom, realm, world, or dimension. Some characters gather there during a storm and tell stories, a la Canterbury Tales, which sounds very nice to me.
I’ve only made matzo balls once and have yet to perfect my recipe, so give me time; I’ll be able to stir up a long, drawn-out war in a few years.
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I love the Sandman.
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Why don’t you open a virtual prototype here on the blog? It could be a bohemian alternative to the Hare & Hedgepig.
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I would love to do that!
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Great! Send some sketches and menus and things, and we’ll get started. Unless you’d rather start without them.
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I shall indeed send sketches! They may take several days, though, on account of the essays currently conspiring against me.
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“Joyous Winter Holiday” and “Spring Day” are pretty typical, but Patriotism Day’s a new one on me. I typically associate patriotism with eating hamburgers and apple pie, reading Ginsberg, watching baseball, plotting road trips across the country, and listening to Bob Dylan, since those things all make me feel very patriotic. I typically associate 9/11 with rewatching the Jon Stewart clip from a week after the attacks, looking at pictures of New York, and setting aside some time for thought, reflection, and grief.
Honestly, I’d rather not mix one up with the other. Patriotic activities are things I do in order to honor the part of myself that’s an American, and 9/11-remembrance activities are things I do in order to honor the part of myself that’s human. I understand that for many people 9/11 may be more associated with a sense of national unity, or something else related to their American identity. I feel like I may just have been born too late for all of that, though. I was only six when the Towers were destroyed. I missed the national grief, I missed the sense of patriotism that so many people talk about. I remember having to take my shoes off in the airport, but I’m too young to have a clear memory of why I have to.
So for me remembering September 11 has nothing to do with being an American. Which is strange, I suppose, but I can’t explain it any other way.
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Your school calendar is misinformed. September 11 is Patriot Day, so proclaimed by a unanimous vote of the House of Representatives and the Senate after the attacks in 2001. (It’s not a federal holiday, though, so no vacation.)
I think it’s misnamed. People from all over the world died in the World Trade Center; the attacks were a crime against humanity. It would have been easy to frame the commemoration to reflect some of that universality.
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And then there’s Patriot’S Day, the anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War, but that’s only really a big deal in Massachusetts.
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According to Wikipedia, the third Monday in April is Patriot’s Day in Maine but Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts. That’s a bit sloppy, but at least the name makes sense in the context of the Revolutionary War.
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I find that funny too. Especially the fact that they had to specify that the winter holiday is “joyous”. It almost sounds like something that has been translated from another language in such a way that it ends up slightly overexcited. Also , World’s End sounds wonderful! When is it opening?
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Today marks the 11th anniversary of when terrorists hijacked two planes and crashed into the Twin Towers,killing hundreds of innocent people.
Yay.
/sarcasam
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I’m curious to hear the perspective of people who don’t remember 9/11/01 because they were too young, who have always lived in a fearful world.
I was in third grade when it happened, and I didn’t really understand what was going on, and I am one of the older people here. (And I lived in a location where many people commuted to the city, or had relatives who lived there. /I/ had relatives who lived there — my grandfather worked at a school nearby, and I’m told that my aunt actually worked in one of the towers, but not the one that was hit first, and so she had a chance to escape.)
So:
-What’s it like being geographically distanced from 9/11?
-Does 9/11 feel more tragic to you than other historical events, because it happened in or near your lifetime?
-How much do you know about 9/11? Personally, I didn’t start learning about recent historical events until almost high school, so if you’re younger and haven’t reached high school yet, it’s not inconceivable that you don’t have a full picture of the events of the day.
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I just heard someone point out that many of our soldiers in Afghanistan right now were young children when the attacks happened.
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I was 2 when the towers fell, and living in Canada, so I don’t remember very much about it.
I still have the “CAKE YOU YOU CAKING TERRORISTS!!!” feeling whenever someone brings up 9/11 , and it does feel much more tragic than anything else in recent history because it happened in my lifetime.
I know a fair bit, and I wish this never happened.
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I was three when 9/11 happened, and I had absolutely no idea that it had happened until I was in fifth grade.
It’s kind of odd when you learn about something that’s huge, that so many people know about, and you haven’t had the slightest notion that it had happened for all of your life. It completely shocks everything you thought you knew.
I don’t blame my parents for not telling me about it at first. I wouldn’t want to explain to a three year old that some planes had crashed into two building in New York on purpose and killed thousands of people. But I found out through school that it had actually happened, not just what exactly had happened. And I wish my parents had told me.
I live in Maine, so it’s not too far from New York. I’ve been to New York City, several times. My uncle lives there. I know people who barely avoided going to the twin towers that day. I know people who have had relatives who died in 9/11. It doesn’t seem very far away from me.
I do view 9/11 as more tragic than other historical event, but not because it happened in my lifetime. I view it as more tragic because it could have affected me. I mean, it does, it did. It affected America. But my uncle could have been near the twin towers when the planes hit. A boy in my grade could have lost his father. This is an event closer to me.
I’ve never lived in a world without the fear of terrorist attacks. But I’ve lived without being conscious of that fear, and it amounts to the same thing.
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I was five when it happened. I live on the Connecticut shoreline, perhaps an hour and a half away from the city, so it was very close and very real.
I was a half-day kindergartner, so I normally got out of class around 11. I believe there was early dismissal that day, although I’m not sure. I do know that my parents picked me up instead of letting the bus take me, so I think it may have been dismissed.
I can’t recall whether I saw it on live TV or on a tape later that day. I didn’t understand the implications until later, but it’s one of my first memories (the other being from when I was two). I’m pretty sure I saw the aftermath on TV, and I definitely was aware of the whole thing having happened when WTC 7 collapsed.
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I am interested to hear these perspectives too. I was 11 when 9/11 happened, in 6th grade, and I vaguely remember hearing about the planes in school and being shocked that people would do something like that and asking my parents why.
It was weird to overhear a mother describing to her son (he looked to be around 9 or so) what had happened at the bakery I work at today as it has been something I have known about since around the day it happened. It isn’t history for me, it is something in my life that I remember. I find it odd and interesting that it is history for so many people, including some of you.
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It’s interesting to see people’s memories from an east coast perspective. For me, on the west coast, my school started at 8:30, so everything was pretty much over by the time I left for school. So it wasn’t my parents decision to pull me out of school or not, it was to actually send me to school. Which they did, after calling our relatives who lived on Long Island to ensure they were OK.
I watched Good Morning America every day at around 7:30 while my mom did my hair and finished getting herself ready for the day. What I saw that morning was not live coverage of the event, but many shocked stories of what had happened while the footage of the planes hitting or the towers collapsing played over and over again.
There were a fair amount of people missing from school. I think my parents sent me in hopes that my teachers would explain what was going on so they wouldn’t have to. There was a hurried assembly and a minute of silence, which was impressive for an elementary school. And then we just went about our day. We were literally two thousand miles away; what else could we do?
Later that day my church hosted an hour of silence. My family didn’t go, but they did explain what happened to me when I asked and they realized the school didn’t explain. I asked about our relatives, and when I heard they were fine, I was relieved. I felt sad, but I don’t think I realized the magnitude of it.
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Mine is from a midwest/central time perspective, not an east coast. Just to clarify.
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I was 10 when it happened, and in math class, in Texas. They had turned on the news when the first plane hit, so I think we actually might have seen the second plane hit live on TV. I think I remember finding out later that my mom had actually called the school after that and asked them to make sure we weren’t seeing the news because a lot of the images being shown were quite disturbing. I remember after school let out telling my mom that two planes had flown into the world trade towers, and her telling me that there were actually four planes. I didn’t know anyone personally affected, though. I don’t remember if my school sent counselors around – they did for the anthrax scare a few weeks (?) later, why I do not know.
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I was 3 when it happened, and I have no memory of it. I expect I wasn’t told about it, or else I would.
I was told about it later; I don’t know when. I can’t remember not knowing that it happened. But for most of my life, I had no idea that I had been alive when it happened. I don’t remember when it was–late elementary school? early middle? I don’t know. But I was shocked. I had no idea. Because of all that, Mikazuki’s last paragraph is also true of me.
It… doesn’t feel more tragic to me than other historical events, because for such a long time, I didn’t know that it happened in my lifetime, and that just wasn’t how I thought of it. I really don’t know if it would feel more tragic otherwise.
It’s worth noting that I live in Texas, far away from the towers, and I don’t know anyone who was near them at the time.
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At 8:46 (in the middle of Geology class) we had a moment of silence for 9/11.
When I was in NYC this summer I got a bunch of good looks at the skyline from the boat. In fact, the skyline was pretty much all I saw of NYC. Because I’d never been there before and I’m fairly bad at knowing much about cities, I wasn’t entirely sure where exactly the twin towers were missing from, and felt weird asking, so I didn’t.
I remember hearing about what was happening and thinking that New York was a long way away, and being far more worried about Washington DC, since that was much more immediate, and so was Pennsylvania. I remember asking my parents whether all the planes overhead were going to crash on us, and I remember how it seemed like a constant stream of planes and helicopters for quite some time afterward.
I remember all of those things, but I also remember when one of my friends started writing some maudlin reverie titled “9/11, the day that changed my life” and asking her why she said that. She didn’t know anyone who died that day. She lived in WV, didn’t have as many planes overhead all the time, and, like most people our age, didn’t really grasp the situation or its implications, other than everyone around us was scared, so when we remembered, we were too.
Anyway, I asked her how it changed her life, and she stopped, chewed thoughtfully on her pencil for a moment, and then answered “I dunno. I guess it was supposed to?”
That was not a satisfactory answer to me then, and it still isn’t.
Looking back, I guess 9/11 did change my life, a bit. I know people who knew people who died. I have a better understanding of politics than I did when I was 8. I think a little more about hijacked planes than the idea that you’re flying in a huge heavy machine with a bunch of moving parts that could fail whenever I’m flying somewhere. I’ve been to NYC, and I couldn’t help but wonder as I walked through Manhattan “was this street filled with ash? What were the people doing here on that day?”
But those aren’t really very profound connections to a tragedy at all, and that’s what I think is wrong with making a huge deal about this day.
My country has been at war now for as long as I can remember, but it hasn’t affected me, personally. I still ran around in the woods as a kid. I still have a house, I still have my family and friends around me. My family got a new car a few years ago. We go to museums and plays and eat vegan food. I am attending a college of my choice, and when I graduate I will hopefully find a job doing something that I enjoy.
All of this is normal. All of this is fine. All of this is unaffected by the fact that there’s a caking war going on. All of this is unaffected by the fact that people are in the business of killing many, many more people that didn’t do anything against us in some sort of retribution for some of our people.
Go ahead and call me a hippie liberal, I’ll agree, but this is absolutely crazy. I don’t think we’re affected enough.
We make a huge deal out of one day a year on the anniversary of, admittedly, a Really Awful And Scary Thing happening.
We don’t make enough of a deal about the people that go through similar things all the time and can’t even then get on with their lives, their jobs, their educations, and their families, because they’re forced to fight or to flee or to live in war zones that they have no involvement in except for proximity.
Let’s work on sorting out those issues and spending time “never forgetting” that we as humans can work together and do really incredible things peacefully, too.
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I agreed with Fiddler. For some reason, 9/11 didn’t really disturb me that much because there were no consequences. I had heard of war from my grandmother- bombs, starvation, death- and since nothing like that happened, I felt safe. True, there were some buildings under construction, but since you used to be able to pretty much tell where the bomb carpets were in Vienna by the architecture (near train stations: hideous housing slapped together in the 50s), I knew the scale was wrong.
((Besides, I still labored under the delusion that one could walk to Switzerland from Salzburg and I had better hiking shoes than the kids in Sound of Music.))
Being a bit older, I suppose I could correct my statement: it’s that the US hasn’t lost a war on home turf that makes it so unreal. You haven’t really lost a war until foreign soldiers are breaking down your door. Until it takes you more than a generation to rebuild to gaping holes in every city block. Not to mention the dead.
Only one correction to what Fiddler said: they do get on with their lives. They try, at least. I took my grandmother to the doctor yesterday and she was telling me about her time at university- she started in 1949, despite everything else that was going on (the occupation, her father’s death, etc) as she’d somehow managed to graduate high school after having to take the train into Vienna every day (infrastructure = military target) and smuggling food and anything else she could do to keep from starving.
It didn’t help that the NS propaganda had women staying at home and having as many kids as possible, not leaving home to study at university (several of her professors were very sexist). I (more or less) asked her how she managed somehow get a doctorate in the midst of all that, and she told me that despite everything, life went on. Every morning, she’d leave home, never knowing if she’d ever see her family again, but people were just as like to die at home and one couldn’t just stop. She said that in the end, it was all luck- who lived, who died. But she knew that she wanted an education; she didn’t know she could be that strong, but she had to be so she was. And that, more than everything, she prays every night that I’ll never have to go through the same thing.
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It’s disturbing to me because there are so few consequences that most of the population never sees. There are plenty of people in this country who have had consequences. Members of the military and their family (who have some idea before signing up what they’re getting into), and the victims and the families of the people who died in the attacks. That’s still a proportionally fairly low amount of the population that is affected, though.
I know people get on with their lives, but as you said about your grandmother, the odds are far higher and the risk is far greater.
Even though the propaganda from WWII sickens me, I can’t help but wonder whether we as a country would have less war these days if every citizen were more involved, more deprived because if it. What if we couldn’t buy fancy new cars? What if food ran low and people had to prepare their own more often? What if we had to practice blackout drills? Would the inconvenience drive people to protest the war? I feel like it just might. What if supporting the war effort meant more than just buying a cheap magnet to go on your car?
What if more people saw the consequences of conflict?
Like you said, we don’t fight wars on our home turf. We don’t know what that’s like. 9/11 is the closest thing we’ve got, and because as a culture we’re so used to not seeing the consequences of our actions, it’s a Big Deal. But I think we need to look outward, because acting like this is the worst attack on humanity that’s every happened is childish and disrespectful to the rest of the world. Yes, it hurts us as a country. Yes, we should remember that hurt. Yes, we should commemorate the lives that were lost. But we also need to acknowledge that this is one of many tragedies, many of which are on larger scales and many of which continue today.
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All of the above.
A friend of a friend was a stewardess on one of the WTC flights. I’m fairly sure that’s the closest actual link I have to the buildings.
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The first sentence should read “because there are so few consequences that most of the population gets to see.”
Words not good I am at.
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What really bothers me is the extra Islamophobia that has appeared after 9/11 and that plenty of people in the population don’t notice that consequence.
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If the ‘phobes aren’t in the general population, then who are they, and what are they doing?
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I think what oxlin meant is that islamophobia is somewhat present at a low level in the general population (much higher when centered around radicals), but the majority of people (who themselves may or may not be islamophobic) don’t realize the consequences of their and others’ islamophobia.
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Yup. The islamophobia is present within many of the general population, and within society, and very high spikes in a few individuals but most people don’t seem to realize that they are being islamophobic, or if they do realize, they don’t, like Enc said, notice the consequences.
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Every time you go through airport security, you see consequences of 9/11.
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I started typing up a response to 9/11 post but then I had to copy it into word because it was too big (like two pages, and I’m still not done). Long story short, I agree with Oxlin, and wish that 9/11 affected my life less.
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I was six during 9/11/01. All I knew was that my teacher unexpectedly interrupted the class for a moment of silence commemorating the thousands of people who died when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. I’d never heard of the World Trade Center before. I assumed we were commemorating some big tragedy that happened in US history years, maybe decades, ago. The moment of silence lasted about a minute. After all, we were on the other side of the continent. Why should we children be worried unduly by an unusually long commemorative moment?
It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I learned when it happened. I became resentful of my school for undervaluing the events so much. Sure, we were a bunch of first-graders, but they could have at least had the decency to tell us that the people we were “remembering” were people who had been alive only hours before! Every September 11th in middle school, we were told stories of heroism, sacrifice, and horror associated with the destruction of the World Trade Center. We read collections of short stories written by children ages six to ten who had been near the World Trade Center when it was destroyed. Many of them had a parent who worked there. Of those that did, most of them lost that parent. I think the school was trying to make extremely sure that we really got the message.
When I moved to North Carolina, the discussions of 9/11 got more serious, presumably because I was now much closer to where it happened. There was less talk about the survivors, the people nearby, and more talk about the victims themselves. Now, instead of saying “Nameless Firefighter X was a hero because he tried to save people in the towers” it has become “Named Firefighter Y was a hero because he died to save people in the towers.” I’m not giving the name, though. There were enough firefighters who fit that description that every teacher told us about a different one. The biggest change is that instead of saying “this is a tragic event, let’s be quiet for a few seconds and then move on with our lives” people are saying, “this event is tragic because…”
Even with that difference, it wasn’t until today that I learned what actually happened. One of my teachers, who had been a senior in a high school reasonably near at the time, explained everything: what actually happened, common misconceptions about the event, how it affected her personally, how it affected her classmates, how it affected her students. Up until today, I thought that the only place affected was the World Trade Center. Up until today I thought only two planes were involved. Up until today I never realized that if it had happened only a couple of months earlier, I could have been on one of them. See, at the time, my father lived in New Jersey. Whenever my mother took my sister and me to see him, we flew in to New York and drove the rest of the way in a rental car. At least two of the hijacked planes were American Airlines, which is what we usually flew on. At least one of those was headed to Los Angeles (at least two of the planes were going to Los Angeles, according to the video, but one of them was United Airlines, which we didn’t fly on that year or generally nearly as often). Usually, when we flew back from New York, we would usually go to San Fransisco or occasionally actually San Jose, but that year there was some kind of deal or something and going through Los Angeles was cheaper. Now, I know that even if the tragedy we think of as 9/11 had actually happened on that day, it’s still probable that we would have ended up on a different plane flying the same route, but it does help put it into perspective for me.
The teacher who showed us this said that the message to take away from it was to be tolerant. Intolerance is what drove the terrorists to attack the towers; this should teach us more than anything else to tolerate others ourselves. Now, I think she’s completely right. But I have another message to take away from it. No matter how bad something is, no matter how far away, people deserve to know the truth. The whole truth. Not knowing something doesn’t make it any less tragic, and it doesn’t make it any less real. And when it really comes down to it, how is ignorance any better than intolerance?
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SFTDP. Sorry, I forgot that because of my late birthday I wouldn’t have been quite six years old yet; I’d had a little more than a month to go.
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I’m learning to belly-dance! Slowly, and clumsily, and so far I wouldn’t dare to ever do it in public- but it makes me feel so elegant! (Belly-dancing teachers Nina and Vina of YouTube are helping a great deal.)
I am way more excited than is probably normal, but seriously, you should all try belly-dancing, it is the funnest of fun.
(And the local rec center has a class called “Bellywood” wherein you belly-dance to Bollywood music, so. Life is officially good.)
Today our newspaper staff conducted a group interview with our school district’s superintendent, the upshot of which was basically that if Proposition 30 (which would raise sales taxes and taxes on the rich and give that money to schools) doesn’t pass in November, we’re screwed.
(As in, cutting $6.5 million from our district budget, screwed.)
If Prop 30 doesn’t pass, the following may be cut: seventh period, all but two librarians in our district of 25 schools, most school counselors and all psychologists, low-enrollment courses, and all school bus service.
(Currently, any money the district has is VERY weirdly designated, so that we have a large state-granted budget for construction- so my school is getting a new gym, cafeteria, and main building, but we may not have school buses next year.)
(I understand it’s different in a lot of the state, but I live in a particularly weird district- we’re a Basic Aid district, because property values are supposedly higher here (they’re not, actually; they were when the districts were divided up way back when), but it’s also a fairly poor area, and we never voted in a lot of the tax measures that other districts did, so in summary, ughghghghghgh no money.)
Somehow, I was under this vague impression that because we live in a first-world country, in a first-world state, the education system would be secure; for some reason, I just imagined there was a backup plan, because no one would let this happen. But no. My school system is collapsing.
This probably belongs on the Rants and Plaints thread, but this particular crisis is also sort of a summary of my life right now. So. Belly-dancing!
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Belly dancing! I actually considered trying the bellydance exco (small class for students taught by students at my college) here but didn’t get in/probably would have chickened out. But I kind of want to learn, since my core/stomach is one of the few places I am maybe more coordinated than most people/can move the muscles of. Good on you for doing it!!
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Enjoy yourself with bellydancing. My friend and her sisters do it, and they find it fun and all. They performed at one of our school’s events this year and people loved it. She also looked good in her costume…
The situation with your school district sounds awful. How did people decide that was a good idea? (that was a rhetorical question if that’s not obvious over the internet)
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I don’t have vivid memories of the day.
I can’t recall in shocking detail the exact moment when I found out it had happened.
For me, it was just another school day.
I went to preschool; I came home; I played with toys. If Mommy or Daddy or the preschool director seemed especially sober, it went over my three-year-old head. The world in my eyes was just like it always was: I had a preschool to go to and parents to feed me and a house to live in and toys to play with. I probably moaned, at dinner, about having to eat peas. Maybe I splashed around in the bathtub until the water grew cold. Maybe I lied about having brushed my teeth.
I remember, on a 9/11 some years later, my mom sitting me down and telling me about the tragedy.
The thing that always gets me about this is that it’s in public memory now, but eighty years from now (whatever the world will be like then) it won’t. And I’ve often wondered what it’ll be like in the future. Will it be just another day in history? Will it have faded?
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So today was my first proper Sweeney Todd rehearsal. We’re basically rehearsing the scenes in order (not sure if this is theater norm or not), so today’s was that one scene where the judge (me, in case anyone forgot) gets mad at Anthony and is generally evil and stuff.
It went rather well; I was a bit overprepared with my lines, but I suppose that’s better than not knowing them at all. My castmates are pretty cool and I personally know about half of them, so that makes things easier. According to our theater director, due to my low voice, I’m probably going to get typecast for the creepy villain roles. Not that I mind; it was only a couple weeks ago that theater was merely a possibility. But we all messed up a lot and laughed and had a good time and made crazy voices for our characters, so yeah.
This is going to be a fun play.
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I’m leaving for college tomorrow, and I’m just starting to get nervous.
Actually, no, more like terrified.
This is going to be amazing.
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So our fall play is going to be Diary of Anne Frank. We usually have tons of random backstage inside jokes and silliness, but this time everything is Nazis and death camps and there’s actually a warning on the audition poster about being mature and respectful. We’ll probably have a few lectures on how Holocaust jokes are Not Okay before the run is over. This should be interesting.
But I’m still Head of Lighting! So that’s good.
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I went to the first ‘Debating Society’ meeting just now. I didn’t want to volunteer to debate yet, since I wasn’t sure of the format and everything, but throughout the speeches of those who did volunteer I was raring to join in – luckily they allowed points to be taken from the floor so I managed to speak and ask questions! I realise how much I’ve missed organised arguing (and I’m hoping MUN starts soon so I can get back into that)!
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so… my birthday is tommorrow and i havn’t been posting for awhile because my computer was having issues so… happy birthday to me! i will be 11 tommorrow. and we are having a BIG party. even though i don’t want a big party just a little “Congratulations” party. maybe get at least 3 presesents and for some reason the blog says i speled that word wrong. frobably because i did spell it wrong, (like “Frobably”)
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Happy almost-birthday, Catwings! Are you the first MBer born in the new millennium? I’ll have to check, but it seems likely.
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As far as I know, probably! Happy Birthday!
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So, my school is going to have a Brain Game Team after all! It turns out that the two other researchers from last year who couldn’t make it to most of the meetings have, for various reasons, dropped several of their other commitments, and can now be full-time team members. So we now have the minimum number of team members! On the negative side, that means that unless more people join, I’m going to have to actually compete. Eep. I have horrible reaction time in a quiz setting.
In other news; I’ve made a new friend in my Latin 3 class who is smart, kind, seemingly very open-minded (I’ve only known en for a couple of weeks, so I’d rather not make assumptions), and a Whovian. I told this friend about MuseBlog, and en seemed interested. Hopefully en will join.
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I hope they come!
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Today, I wore awesome socks (they have koi on them!! ♥) and sang “Lost in the Wilderness” at my dog.
Some days, I really love being me.
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*twitch*
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(Please, let’s just not speak ill of cats or dogs here. You never know what might happen).
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i wasn’t indicating that… his exitement about socks twitched me…
this coming from a person who never wears socks and hardly ever wears shoes
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(Koppar is female.)
I’ve never met someone with such an aversion to socks. I’m wearing some right now, but only because I forgot to take them off.
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Oh, I see. I’m the same way! I have to wear socks occasionally now because I volunteer at a place that requires closed-toed shoes, and the only pair I have requires socks, but I definitely don’t consider myself a sock (or shoe) person, either. But koi are awesome! I think they might make up for the socks being socks.
Koppar is female, by the way.
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Clubs started meeting today! I’m in 4: Spanish club, drama club, environmental club, and community service club. I don’t know when the Spanish club meets yet; I hope it doesn’t conflict with the others. Drama club and community service club do conflict, so I’m going to have to choose or alternate or something; the drama club was the only one I signed up for that met today, so that’s where I went. My main impression is that it’s very democratic, which I think is good for a club. Everyone wants to start with improv, though, which is something I’m not good at. Oh, well!
I also want to see if I can get the school to register for some math and science competitions I want to do, and I might start clubs for them. Hopefully, I’d get to choose when they meet, but I’m not at all sure of that.
Also, my geometry class is boring, so I’m going to study to test out of it. (That’s basically my reaction to classes I don’t like now; I’m not sure what that says about me). I’m going to ask for the English exams, too, because while I actually like my English class, I might be able to test out of it without much effort, and it would be nice to be a grade ahead so that I’d have another elective in senior year. (Or maybe they’ll just give me an extra study hall, but I wouldn’t mind that, either).
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I posit that there are few more enjoyable ways to spend an evening than sitting under a bridge in a sculpture garden, drinking coffee, listening to the rain splash around you, watching the wind blow the trees back and forth, smile at the people running from place to place holding newspapers and backpacks over their heads, jotting down some poetry from time to time, singing whatever songs you happen to think of, calling your dad and organizing a hike, eating some peanut M&Ms you’d forgotten were in your backpack, and just enjoying life. If I hadn’t had so much homework and practicing to do, I would’ve stayed there much longer than an hour and a half.
I reject all claims that there exists a better season than autumn.
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Ah I saw the squid on your post and acted automatically sorry.
Autumn is nice, agreed, but I like winter. Sledding and hot chocolate and snowmen and presents and lazy snow days spent in bed.
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Winter’s nice, but once you get to late January and all the snow’s dirty and packed down and there’s sand everywhere and you haven’t seen the sun in a month, it gets a bit tiring. I’ve never gotten tired of autumn.
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It depends on where you live, I guess. For me, winter is when you finally get a release from all the oppressive heat and maybe even a day or two of snow if you’re really lucky. There certainly isn’t anything to tire of.
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What I do is start to feel a little resentful right around the middle of winter and think “Why was I waiting for this? Sure, it’s fun in some ways, but…meh. I miss SUMMER!”
And then we get to the middle of summer and I begin to think “What on earth is so special about this? It’s so HOT. Why didn’t I just stay in the winter? I can’t wait for the cold weather again.”
And by the time the next Big Season rolls around I’ve forgotten how much I dislike them both. And I don’t particularly like spring either, because it’s sometimes freezing cold with nice warm sun and the atmosphere is very…fresh and vibrant and full of dew.
That’s all well and good, but I’ve discovered that I far prefer the dry crunch of autumn, how it’s warm and chilly at the same time and yet in an oddly more pleasant way than spring, and how you can essentially wear summer or winter clothing because it’s all comfortable at different parts of the day.
I was actually born several days before autumn officially starts, but the weather’s already changed by then and I like autumn better, so I just tell people I was born in the autumn.
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In England, we simply find all the seasons intolerable and complain about them.
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Leaving aside school, I don’t think I have a favorite season, there are things about each one that I like.
I like watching the leaves turn colors, seeing the stars come out earlier, wearing sweaters but not coats, and making Halloween costumes and decorations.
I like playing in the snow, sitting bundled up to watch the winter constellations overhead, seeing that sea-green color the sunset has in it and celebrating Christmas and New Years with my family.
I like seeing the world turn green again, walking barefoot on the grass, seeing the magnolia and cherry trees bloom, and hearing the birds sing.
I like collecting sea glass and scallop shells at the seashore, swimming in the ocean, watching thunderstorms while safely curled up inside, and lying on a beach towel to stare at the heart of the Milky Way.
“January to December, we’ll have moments to remember…”
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*sigh* Sometimes I wish I lived in a place with seasons.
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Same here. The only real differences are in temperature and organisms–and as it happens, most of the trees here are evergreen, so there isn’t even a huge difference in leaf color.
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Except for the people who live in areas that don’t get snow.
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Oh so, excos!! This year I am in SharkCo (exactly what it sounds like) and Dreams, Myth, and the Endless; which is all about Sandman
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Happy Birfday To Me!!!!
already like 6 of my relatives called to say Happy Birthday!
last night my parents got me a awesome lego thing!
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Happy Birthday, Catwings! What kind of LEGO sets dis you get?
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* did.
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There were some bike services at today’s Sustainability Fair, who were giving out bike maps of the city, and I realized that the only places I really go off-campus are all within three miles of my dorm.
Part of me is scared of riding to the aquarium or to MIT because I’d need to ride in the street to do so, but I could at least go to Science Park completely on the Esplanade without worrying about cars.
Would it be worth it to buy a helmet and account with the city’s bike rental program if I would only use it maybe once a week?
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I would. Feel free to snip this out, GAPAS, but a city in my area-ish started a rent-a-bike program. Good idea.
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We’re doing Twelfth Night this year and I, as usual, auditioned and, also as usual, did not get a speaking role. But, something excellent happened today. We’re setting it in the 1920s, and the formerly-Duke Orsino will be someone high up in the mob who owns a speakeasy. Guess which violinist gets to play (live) music in all of the scenes taking place there.
Hint: it’s me.
Excuse me while I squee uncontrollably.
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Sounds– to use a period-appropriate expression– like the cat’s pajamas!
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I was originally planning on going up to Boston for my birthday, but my father and I decided on NYC instead. I’d still really like to go up to Boston some time, though, perhaps when I can drive myself (which is, scarily, only a year away give or take license-get time) so that I’m more independent. Regardless, I’d love to try to squeeze a Kokon in there somewhere because I know there’s a lot more MBers up in the Boston area than there are in and around New York City.
I’ve only been in the city once when I was 11 and boated around it when I turned 13, so my navigational skills are probably a lot rusty. If anyone actually is in that area, and is interested, let me know,
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I read that as, “I’ve only been in the city once when I was eleven and boasted about it when I turned 13”.
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I finished my ribosome! I’m fairly confident I got a good grade on it, too. I’ll send in pics as soon as I can. Somebody else in my class made a chromosome out of rice crispies, and we all got to eat it at the end. It was so good.
At lunch today I was sick of hearing Tuba say “—- you” every time somebody put down a card, so instead of participating in the card game I put my earbuds in (that’s probably one of the things I like most about high school– you can have electronics around campus and as long as you’re not in class nobody really cares) and listened to songs while just watching all my friends squabble and play cards and decapitate each other, all to a soundtrack only I could hear. I’m so happy I have all my friends; they’re all such flammy people. ♥
I just got back from a polishing party where I got to spend some quality time with my section and enjoy the sensation of being in a group of people who for the most part are all taller than me. We listened to recordings of old marching band shows. Also we listened to the Tron:Legacy soundtrack and that was really flammy. When I get more money I shall buy it.
In band I got to play a real live trigger trombone! I play trombone in the stands and since it was Stand Tune Friday we were all supposed to play our playing-in-the-stands instruments but I don’t have a trombone I can take to school and since the one I play in the stands is my sister’s and she needs its for school, I was rummaging around for a trombone to play. So a trombonist who plays tuba in the stands lent me his trombone and it was a really nice trombone. My mouthpiece was too small so I washed out one of Sam’s old mouthpieces. (A really grody one with someone’s initials carved into it. XD ) I’ve never actually played a trigger trombone before.
We have a football game tonight and since it’s something-or-other night we’re playing the show before hand, just for the parents, on the soccer field, and then we play the show. Then there’s a sleepover for all the brass babes and I’m going to that.
I’m a tiny bit apprehensive but also pretty excited.
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My senior picture was today. I am so glad it’s over. For the picture that went into the actual yearbook, they have all the girls wear this “drape” thing that’s supposed to look like an old-fashioned velvet dress (the picture is just a head-shot). They offer to let you wear a fake pearl necklace. I decided to do so, hoping that it would counteract my… well, my face. You can take a few seconds to look at the pictures afterward, and not only did I look like a guy, I looked like a cross-dressing guy! I just hope the finishing touches they put on it will fix that.
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Oh come on, your face is flippin’ awesome. The picture could be worse, though; I sneezed during my passport photo and they didn’t let me retake it (because apparently I was “still recognizable, and this embassy is very busy, kiddo”).
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Ditto CO.
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I just had a brilliant (if somewhat depressing) idea for a NaNoWriMo Novel. November, here I come!
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Awesome! Do tell.
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Just dropping in to mention this:
My (and Swalot’s) Physics teacher is a Whovian who is an avid fan of Douglas Adams.
Win.
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My biology teacher keeps pet black widows. She is amazing.
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My science (and homeroom!) teacher has an otter tattooed onto her forearm. Best. Teacher .Ever.
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My physical science teacher has an xkcd poster hanging in his classroom! And he noticed my Schrödinger’s Cat t-shirt!
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I don’t know what thread is best for webcomic discussion, but some of you are Homestuck fans, right?
My brother’s mentor class did a “get-to-know” you activity that included writing something you tried for the first time this summer on a piece of paper. The rest of the class had to guess which paper went with which kid. One of the papers said “Homestuck”, which of course led to a chorus of “What’s Homestuck?”, “You were stuck at home this summer?”, etc. The kid tried to explain it, but naturally failed to condense Homestuck into a digestible synopsis.
That was funny by itself, but the part I found most hilarious? The pieces of paper were shaped like buckets.
As in bucket list – that was the intent.
But also as in Homestuck and buckets.
I want to give that kid a high-five for a joke his classmates didn’t get on so many levels.
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This is the best!
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I think “You were stuck at home this summer” would have been my guess had I not heard people talking about the webcomic here.
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Yep, and I have no problem with people who took it that way. My brother only understood what “Homestuck” was because I read a great deal of it this spring and talked about it every once in a while.
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Technically this should be on the music thread, but it’s a bit dead as of now.
OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS YEAR’S DECEMBER CONCERTS- I’m in 4 groups
School band- Haydn Horn Concerto No.1- I’m both the arranger and the soloist
Brass Ensemble- Don’t know all of our repertoire for this year, but we are playing a piece I wrote/will finish this week
Orchestra- Brahms Symphony No. 1 – Such a great horn part
Wind Ensemble- Okay, this is the big one
Children’s Overture by Eugene Bozza- absolutely crazy opener (grade 6)
Charles Ives’ Piano Sonata No. 2, Movement 3 (The Alcotts)- For a while over the summer I was literally listening to this piece every day. Turns out there’s a wind band arrangement. Yesssssss (gr. 6)
Paris Sketches by Martin Ellerby- So beautiful (and crazy, espcially La Pigalle). And a 3rd horn solo which I get to play! (gr. 5)
Variants on a Medieval Theme by Dello-Joio- Don’t know much about it, but it’s difficult and fun apparently? (gr. 5)
Niagara Falls by Michael Daugherty- Incredibly fun and jazzy and interesting and everything (gr. 6)
So basically this season will be absurdly difficult but incredibly fun. YES
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Michael Daugherty! Yay!
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SHOPPING EXPEDITION TO NEW YORK CITY YEEAAAAAAAHHH!
Prepare for the onslaught of t-shirts with obscure references, my schoolmates.
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work work work so much work and I’m so bad at doing it
“Let’s watch internet tv! Wait no, can’t do that, work–ohh look posters! No! Work! Check the internet and post everywhere? Well okay WAIT CRAP I SHOULD BE WORKING”
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Hi! Lightning here! We just got back from the Hogsmeade jazz festival. We arrived three hours early so we didn’t actually get to hear much jazz, but we still got to walk around and look in shops and buy candy and eat ice cream. We saw a liscence plate with “GAPA’S” on it. And then we started spazzing because OMG IT’S A GAPA even though it couldn’t have been.
And then we ate pizza.
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And AL showed me Sherlock.
It’s good.
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I get to go to New York City tomorrow. Should be fun.
I rather wish I had a better camera, though, and so I plan to get that Rebel T2i as soon as possible, unless anyone else has a better suggestion for an entry-level dSLR. The one I’m looking at right now is about $700 new.
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This random guy keeps coming up to me and saying stuff like, “Is that Scott Pilgrim?” and “Do you read Homestuck?” Several days ago he wore a Doctor Who shirt. Unfortunately I have no idea what his name is.
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Today was an event where a bunch of kids from my school and people from the community got together and picked up trash and did work along the river, then had a barbeque and music and watched a performance of the play I’m in at the end.
So I spend all day taking pictures (for one of my classes) and trying to figure out how everyone in the play was going to get to the park (because they came later) and then it poured down rain, then we had to change where the stage was, set up, perform, strike the set (meanwhile I was taking pictures all the time except for when the play was on), and now I’m back in my room. Time to start on homework. u.u
I am so tired. And my computer isn’t recognizing my memory card which is a Serious Problem, because I need those pictures for class tomorrow.
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I think Hat Guy sits next to me in Speech class.
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I should probably be doing something important. I’m not. Instead I just stare at the screen, waiting for something to happen. It’s not. I know it’s not. But I just let the seconds of my life pass by, barely even mourning their loss through my emotionally deadened armor.
I have whole stories I could tell you. RAnts that I’ve never posted. Parts of my soul that I’ve never bared to anyone before. But then when the time came, I looked at the empty comment box and decided that it wasn’t important enough.
As online, so in real life. Words freeze in my throat. I finally manage to say them, and say, “Never mind,” when I’m asked to repeat myself. My opinion isn’t that important, anyways. But it always the things that most important to me that you will never, ever hear about.
Homework, study abroad applications, work study…It’s all the same. I have a life to live, and I’m not taking advantage of it. And on some level, I guess I don’t want to, or else I would be doing something about it, right?
And finally, a question for Museblog: Is this, and my consistently cynical outlook on everything, symptoms of depression?
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After posting it, I realized this better belonged on the Rants and Plaints thread, but since the Random thread is a general overview of Muser’s life, and that’s what my life feels like right now…
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