In ancient Greek mythology, the nine Muses were daughters of Mnemosyne*, the goddess of memory. That relationship expresses, we think, a profound insight into the way our minds work. Therefore, by the authority vested in us, MuseBlog hereby rounds off its year of Musery with a random thread memorializing the Muses’ mom. Thanks for the memories, Mnem!
*Pronounced Ne-MOSS-in-ee, near enough.
Happy December!
In the last week I successfully got a 6-year-old Macbook up and running and am updating its OS version, changed my really really old guitar strings, used my PS2 for the first time in ages, and read more books about zombies.
Yay December! Advent calenders! Presents! Snow (hopefully)!
Not in Portland sigh….
Or Houston. *is somewhat bitter*
Or Port-au-Prince. *is utterly resigned*
Happy December, everybloggy! Appropriately enough, I woke up to snowflakes faling outside my window this morning.
It’s Chrismonth.
Time to feverishly make/buy/search for presents.
Also my friends are the best friends.
I can’t believe the semester is almost over, this is not okay, I’m not ready for finals yet.
Oh my gosh, ENGLAND IS SO SOOOOON ONLY 24 DAYS AND I’LL BE GOING A 6 HOUR TIME CHANGE AWAY WHAT IS LIIIIIIIFE. Also kind of majorly terrifying because first actual overseas/foreign travel and going it alone….not like my Dear Parents have much experience in such matters either, but still, moral support and stuff.
So scary.
But so awesome.
But missing family Christmas.
But ENGLAND.
Feelings, I have them.
My friends are the best friends.
I’d forgotten how magical and also fast crochet was. I’m more than halfway done with one of my roommate’s presents.
I heard about a really good vegan cheese that’s not available in the US, but is in Europe, so maybe while I’m visiting Paul we can geek out about cheese. Because cheese. I just really want vegan cheese right now. All of it. But it doesn’t exist in the cafeteria, and I don’t want to spend money at the store.
This is an exceptionally disjointed post, I apologize. I have no idea how it got to be 2am.
the blog is like your second-family too right?
then that means we have more than one mother (GAPAS)
and over 87 sisters and brothers!
man what a family Christmas would THAT make!
Oh! and a father (Apolagies to Robert Coontz for almost forgetting him
)
Don’t forget Paul… although I think he has “eccentric uncle” written all over him more than father.
I’d say we’re all eccentric aunts and uncles. Certainly my nieces and nephew would vouch for me.
I hope I get to be an eccentric aunt someday! I’d have to marry someone with siblings, though!
It has many advantages. If your nieces and nephews are charming, you can spoil them rotten without penalty. If they start to misbehave, just give them back to their parents. Very handy!
I’ve placed dibs on my cousin’s and best friend’s children, so that I can be an eccentric aunt without actually having to marry or produce children of my own.
I am going to be the best eccentric aunt to my brothers’ kids ever, I will totally be the one who brings them souvenirs from around the world and subtly encourages their suspicions that I may secretly be a spy.
I’m going to be the eccentric aunt that embarasses one of my sisters in front of her children, and I won’t even have to try!
Eccentirc Uncle. I like that, although I’m not sure how people get that impression. Is it the doublet and hose, and playing obsolete music on vintage instruments? Or is it just the penchant for tea?
There will be cheese. And I shall allow you to sleep off the jetlag.
The vegan cheese I told you about is purported to be fantastic, and is only available on your side of the pond. I’m terribly, terribly excited about trying it.
(Possibly little known) fact about Fern: she loves trying new vegan cheeses and hopes to someday find the Most Perfect One.
Happy December! *eyes the cheap vaguely chocolate-like chocolate advent calendar on the wall next to monitor*
It’s been in the high-20s this week, a bit much. In the past week, since exams and school finished, I’ve tidied my room and felt somewhat accomplished, put off dealing with parent and offline friend issues, watched stuff online, and made broad plans to redecorate the walls of my room and do stuff with this year’s photos. I feel the urge to be productive and the urge to procrastinate simultaneously, unfortunately. *sigh*
HOT TIP: If you don’t understand something that’s going on in your own country because all the coverage you are getting is too complicated or assumes you have some sort of knowledge base or experience in the subject, go to an international news agency, or, better yet, an online newspaper from another country.
I’m doing a lot of last-minute stuff for Journalism, and wow, I honestly had only the vaguest idea of what the fiscal cliff was. All the U.S. coverage I could find seemed rely on my already knowing what the consequences of reaching the fiscal cliff would be, or phrased them in a way that my tired brain cannot comprehend, but the New Zealand Herald and The Connexion (an English-language newspaper in France) summed it up really well.
This has been your sometime-past-midnight update from a bleary and stressed Choklit Orange.
Also, don’t write off articles written for children, like in TIME for Kids or Scholastic News, they sometimes explain things really well, in simple language.
It’s odd that Wikipedia’s article on “the Fiscal Cliff Debate” is so pompous and boring. I assume that’s because the issue is so controversial that anybody who tried to explain it in more concrete, informative language would immediately be edited by someone who disagreed with en.
Absolutely. Another problem is that the Wikipedia page and a lot of news articles mention a lot of general, overarching plans that I don’t understand; for example, how exactly would a government “balance long-term deficit reduction with actions that would not slow the economy in the short-run”?
That’s the tricky balancing act policy makers have to deal with. Lowering the deficit (through tax increases, budget cuts, or both) reduces spending, but doing it too suddenly could slow or stop the economic recovery. You can phase in the taxes or cuts gradually, or index them so that they take effect only after some economic indicators reach a certain level, but it’s hard to fine-tune the economic policies when politicians start posturing.
It’s like treating a seriously overweight person who has pneumonia. The patient needs to take antibiotics and go on a diet — but the timing is important. Putting en on a starvation diet right away might not be the best idea.
That was a marvelous explanation. Maybe Wikipedia needs analogies.
Happy December! It’s so exciting to see the first signs of frost.
There’s a wonderful tradition here called Fairies. We live in mixed year group boarding houses, and one night in early December all of our year (the oldest in the house) is responsible for decorating the houses.
Last night we stayed up till one decorating all three floors with ribbons, tinsel, paper chains, paper snowflakes, gingerbread men, and even a snowman made out of cushions. In the morning we woke up the younger girls telling them the Fairies had come overnight and left lots of food – brownies (on which I am currently gorging), cupcakes, sweets in stockings – and a poem about their exploits. Now Christmas songs are playing in the stairs and it’s all very Christmas-like and it’s great. I think the build-up to Christmas is one of the best times of the year.
That’s extremely sweet. I really wish I could do something like it.
Yesterday I got through two of our Christmas parades. Only one more to go! So I’ve already been forced in the Christmas mood. I like the holiday, I just don’t like having to practice Christmas songs in November.
Now to brainstorm present ideas…
Lady B, that is an absolutely gorgeous illustration!
The illustration is amazing. What a way to end off the year!
I love the illustration!
Anyway, I dyed my hair with purple Kool Aid yesterday, and it turned out a weird greenish blue. I have no idea what happened.
That’s what they do with sheep wool i believe.
and is you hair brown? i tried that once too and it turned out green!
I’ve spent the majority of today crocheting with my roommate while listening to Christmas music.
Yessss.
I’m trying to convince my friends that we need to make mulled cider and libations and go caroling at some point before the end of the semester. Because really. That needs to happen. Basically I just want to be in a Dickens novel right now.
Lady B, I really like the illustration!
Wow, beautiful! A fitting celebration of the month and the year.
Wow, nice illustration!
Well, there goes another weekend. I spent all of Saturday doing parades for band and having epic stick fights of epicness and having the deepest conversation that I’ve ever had with a crush/former crush/I don’t even know anymore/Paperclip. But it probably didn’t mean anything. And then I pretended to clean my room and moped around on the Internet. Music is cool. I’m playing flute in my church choir. Marching band season is almost over.
Aaaand cue Christmas season! Time to go knit things.
DID YOU KNOW (that this fact is coming late because I missed the cutoff for the November random thread)
That, according to a google survey done in 2010, there are 129,864,880 books in the world? That’s different books, of course. They asked for the information from library (and other) databases, removed the duplicates and other things with IBSN numbers (videos, etc), and this was their final total.
They are almost certainly missing quite a few, and of course many new books have been published in the intervening years, but that is still a whole lot of books!
This has been your daily factoid from Jade, who will never be able to read that many but can certainly try.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ THE MORE YOU KNOW ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
BUT WAIT!
One of these “facts” was false!
In true Bo spirit, one of my daily facts was not actually true. Pies if you figure(d) it out!
An MBer or two spotted it and tried to correct it, I believe.
shhhh
Hi! I’ve been pretty atrocious about actually posting recently. I am lurking some though! Life just gets busy.
College is going really well. This weekend I went to an orchestra concert, watched Firefly with friends, ice skated with the band, went to a museum gala, got (decaf) coffee after 11pm with friends, watched some Sherlock, and went to see Wreck-it Ralph. A good weekend.
How is life, O Museblog?
Fairly awesome! Glad to hear that you’re enjoying college!
BREAKING NEWS The Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant! Congratulations to Their Royal Highnesses!
I just got back from the annual classics department Christmas party. Nothing big–some cheap pizza, a few bottles of pop, some cookies–but when you get that many classicists together, it really feels like a gathering that could change the world. I think I was the only undergraduate there; there were a few grad students and the rest were professors, retired and otherwise. But I had some very interesting conversations about pronoun specificity differences among Latin, English, Spanish, and Armenian texts, the interaction between unions and homeschooling, and the present form of Church government in the United States. We also lamented the humiliating defeat of our football team.
Sounds like a great time! I love intelligent discussions.
Lament the defeat of our football team? NEVER! The marching band doesn’t take football very seriously, but then again, neither does the rest of our school.My school is so awesome, it doesn’t even have a football team.
Same.
My school is so awesome that some people assume it doesn’t have a football team.
Mine neither… They made joke sweatshirts for a school football team though, and confused a bunch of people. “Wait, your school has a football team?” Yeah, sure we do.
That’s… really awesome. I’m impressed. Mine has to try hard not to confuse people, though, because it wants to make sure people know what they’re getting into before they apply. We only accept a certain amount of new students each year, and they make an agreement to stay at least one full year each, so we have to warn them what they’re getting into; apparently, it’s really important to some people to have those sorts of things.
My nonexistent school doesn’t have a football team.
So today I took my chemistry second week exam, after having stayed up obscenely late (early?) memorizing basically all of chapter six (hydrocarbons! yay) because that was the one topic I felt shaky on.
Hydrocarbons, of course, weren’t even on the exam.
…On the plus side, this was pretty much the easiest exam I’ve taken at Cornell. Hooray!
And now it’s nap time.
I got to look at my exam… It was pretty funny in retrospect.
In a good way or a bad way?
I honestly don’t know.
i spent all day trying to convince myself of the value of Meningitis shots:
Me: “Ok Belinda (my real name) What the cake do i have to be so caki’n worried about? *slaps self in face* the shot only hurts for a few seconds! but the Meningitis itself would hurt A LOT MORE! I know what im gonna do! i do know what the cake im gonna do! Im gonna go to the doctor’s place, then im gonna be crying and making a scene and embarrasing myself because im SOOOO worried, then the doctor will give me a shot and it will only hurt for three seconds and i will hate myself for being such a stupid face and making a scene of it all! *Slap* The caking Meningitis itself could KILL me! but te shot only hurts for a few seconds! Remember! remember Belinda! remember when you had to go LAST time! it only hurt like a CAKING MOSQUITO BITE! (Seriously, my instinct told me to turn around and slap at it
) and i get BILLIONS and BILLIONS of those every single caking year! *Slapity slap* JEEZ!”
can anyone think of a better idea then yelling at myself because yelling actually seemed to help!
Aaah! Needle apprehension is the worst, I agree: and it’s not nearly as bad as the actual shot. Just don’t look at the needle/your arm: it’s what I do.
It really will only hurt for a moment. Think of someone you consider brave, and imagine you’re them.
i highly doubt i could be Chuck Norris
Are there any characters closer to yourself you admire? Perhaps from tv?
Alternatively, maybe if you have something else to concentrate on while you’re getting it. Like if one of your parents could hold up a book in front of you. Or, since you’ve said you like tv if one of them has a smartphone you could maybe get the to hold it in front of you and play part of an episode of something on youtube while you get your shot.
Sympathy about the freaking out! My sister is very scared of shots/needles, she always has a hard time too.
Well… there’s Link from Zelda games! but i dought i could pretend to be him.
i feel sorry for your sister! just reassure her that the sickness that the shot is preventing could hurt a LOT more that the actual shot. i think that’s what comforted me.
I’d say your approach is sound. When I was having my finger sewn up some years ago after a nasty encounter with a buried metal stake, the doctor said, “if people balk at getting a tetanus shot, I say, ‘let me tell you about lockjaw….'” Once he described the symptoms in vivid detail, no one complained further.
also remember that it only hurts for a few seconds. and after that small amount of pain, it will be over and done with and you never have to do it again!
Focus on your breathing. You’ve always got that with you. Try to keep it steady, and count your breaths until it’s all over. It helps pass the time at the dentist, too.
</things_you’d_learn_at_Muse_Academy>
100000…. 100001… 100002… 1000- Oh you mean when i get to the doctor’s? oh…
I watch musicals in my head at the dentist’s. It’s distracting when they try to talk to me, though, and of course it wouldn’t work if I didn’t have any musicals memorized.
I recite the alphabet in my head.
Reciting it backwards or counting in a foreign language might also be an effective distraction.
The most helpful thing for me is generally thinking through poems I’ve memorized.
“Captain Mal got electrocuted until his heart stopped and his ear cut off, I can take one needle.”
…
Firefly.
The bad news: I have a bad cold.
The good news: I took a three-and-a-half hour nap today. I literally cannot remember the last time that has happened.
Oh, this is my life. I took a two hour nap yesterday after school just because I was tired. Today, I am actually sick, so I came home from school at 11, took another two hour nap, and am now taking a break from napping so I can attend online class. Then I may nap again.
So today I happened to run into a friend at the library and she hugged me twice in under five minutes (and a lot more at infrequent intervals afterward) but it was OK.
And then she persuaded me to temporarily forgo the library and go with her to the playground next to it. And we acted like lunatics and had a great time and all the little kids on the playground were staring at us and there were a few moments of awkwardness but I didn’t even care!
Note to self: spend more time acting like a lunatic at conveniently located playgrounds.
SFTDP. That should be “acting like a lunatic with my friends“. Playgrounds are boring otherwise.
I HAVE JUST MASTERED
THE ART OF POKING OTHERS
REALLY HARD
Stay… Away… From me!…
:razz
People tell me whenever I poke them, it hurts .
Imagine that.
I reword posts ALL THE TIME. RAAAAAGE…
…Alan Menken is a genius.
That’s all I can say right now.
I have to get back to homework.
But seriously, this is ridiculously good. *is looking up pretty much every soundtrack to all the musicals and movies he’s composed the scores for and fluctuating between almost squeeing and almost tears while simultaneously attempting to do homework*
Hi, I know I haven’t been around much.
But. Off-topic-I-don’t-know-whether-this-goes-in-the-NaNoWriMo-thread comment: I DID IT 50,000 WORDS.
And kites. I went to a park and flew a kite for the first time ever the other day. I am almost 16. It was an amazing experience. I sort of realized that when you start developing inhibitions, you start to forget how to have fun.
AND NOW I HAVE REACHED MY LIFE GOAL FROM WHEN I WAS 6 OR SOMETHING.
Congratulations! That’s a very impressive achievement, you should be proud of yourself – which I’m sure you are!
It’s great to hear from you! Congratulations on NaNo, and I’m glad you’re doing things you enjoy!
Congrats on your first kite flight! Never let anyone tell you you’re too old to do something for the first time.
Let’s go fly a kite,
Up to the highest height!
Up, through the atmosphere,
Up, where the air is clear…
What was the kite like?
It was blue, and rather old… the string was rather brittle and broke a few times, but chasing after the pieces was rather enjoyable.
Hi. Congratulations on NaNo! Keep having fun.
First sign of snow this morning!
do you live anywhere near Wisconsin?!?!?!
Selenium lives in England.
Indeed I do! (And thanks, Cinnamoon, I nearly didn’t see this.)
Dang! i’ve been waiting for snow ever since spring
Apart from seeing some in Jordan in March, I hadn’t seen any since skiing about two winters ago. I’m sure it’ll make its way to you soon enough, it’s only early December yet.
I just finished Season 1 of Doctor Who.
How can anyone not like Nine? I’m going to miss him.
Nine is wonderful, and when he leaves you are sad and think that no one could ever replace him. But then comes Ten, and for a couple episodes you hate him because Nine is gone, and Nine was amazing, but then you start to realize that wait, Ten is pretty amazing too. You spend three seasons with him, and he becomes more and more wonderful, and when he leaves you sob and cry and think that no one could ever replace him…
And then it starts again with Eleven, because he is wonderful too.
The doctors are all amazing. Enjoy them.
Yes, I have found that it is impossible for me to decide which is my favourite.
Or rather, I think that it is obvious that I like Nine or Ten or Eleven and then I watch an episode with another doctor, and they are my new favorite.
Nine is forever my favorite. I mean, Ten is great too, but he’s certainly no “I’m The Doctor by the way. Run for your life.”
Personally I don’t like Eleven. Or the Ponds. But the other characters at that point are great, so the show still rocks.
Just remember: you may always miss Nine, but that doesn’t lessen the show.
I never really got Nine in the early epsiodes and he`s still my least favorite Doctor. Iunno… I can`t really remember that well. He just didn`t seem very Doctor-like: more as if “Oh, I´m gloomy and whatever… Hey, people are shooting at me, did I mention I´m a madman?”. I suppose it makes sense in canon context after the Time War and all that, but if you`ve never seen the show before, he just seems disturbed (in a bad way).
Nine? Ten? Eleven?
(coming from someone who isn’t a really big Doctor Who fan)
The show has been going for nearly fifty years; the Doctor regenerates into a new form when he is killed (he gets a new appearance and personality), and is played by a new actor. There have been eleven so far. Nine (played by Christopher Eccleston), Ten (David Tennant), and Eleven (Matt Smith) are the most well-known among our demographic, I think, but the previous ones were pretty cool, too.
Ten is the best start with himBut Nine’s season introduces Rose and Jack Harkness, and leather jackets are cool.They are indeed! I am also exceedingly fond of Nine.Roseee. I love her!Adeliae: Congrats on winning NaNo! That’s great!
Oh, and my tea came yesterday, in case anyone was interested.
Ooh, how is the tea?
Hey….if anyone is up for giving relationship advice, I sure could use it over on the R&R thread. Especially from older ‘bloggians. Thanks guys.
Today was full of nope, but then after the concert in the coffeeshop there was an impromptu session. Since I hadn’t been performing I didn’t have an instrument, but my teacher let me borrow his fiddle, and then when he left they decided to stick around so I came back and got my own fiddle and concertina and we kept playing for a decent bit of time.
So, that was good. That was really good. And Saturday is going to be hectic, but awesome. I think. I really, really hope.
I have so much work and so little will to do any of it
update: I didn’t do any of it and am now going to bed
I empathize. I’ve been spending way too much time reading fanfiction instead of working.
My Precalc textbook has a ‘real-life example’ for every section, which, according to the introduction, are supposed to ‘demonstrate the ways that the concepts taught can be and are applied in everyday life.’ Highlights include:
-‘A logarithmic function can be used to model the number of trees per acre given the average diameter of the trees.’
-‘The displacement from equilibrium of an oscillating weight on a spring can be modeled as a function of time.”
-‘A trigonometric equation can be solved to answer questions about monthly sales of skiing equipment.”
-‘The dot product of two vectors can be used to find the force necessary to keep an SUV from rolling down a hill.”
-‘The Law of Sines can be used to determine the length of a swamp.’
Basically, the farther you get into the book, the less relevant the examples become to the life of your average high-schooler.
SFTDP: You could model that with a logarithmic function.
That just begs for a short story in which all this happens to a person in one day….
Or perhaps a decreasing exponential?
You never know when you might be called upon to determine the length of a swamp.
That sounds like something a GAPA would say now hat i think about it…I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I had to do it one day (since I want to be an ecologist eventually), but I would if it was in high school. I might do it for fun, though, once I learn how. The same thing is true of the number of trees per acre thing.
My guess is that these aren’t supposed to be relevant to the life of the average high scholar, and that instead, the point is to show how pre-calc might be helpful it one’s future career, whatever that is. Doubly true if the book was written with college students in mind, which is quite plausible.
Yeah, after I made that post, I thought, ‘Wait, what if I’m on a Heroic Quest of some sort without Google Earth and I really need to know how 2×4 planks of wood I need to get to the center of a swamp? I would have to take two pieces of rope at either end of the swamp and measure their length when connected as two sides of a triangle (the third being the length of the swamp), and then measure the angle between them and use the Law of Cosines to find the missing side and divide by half.’
I think I spent half an hour yesterday overanalyzing the intro to a rap video I hated, but my conclusions were actually kind of interesting.
Made ice cream in class today. Yesssssssssssss.
We learned about the conquest of Mexico today in Mesoamerican Prehistory, so our professor started class off by playing Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer”.
Guess who’s writing her final paper for Evolution on dragons
awww yeahhh
…relatedly, if any of you GAPA(s) or others know of any good books/papers that talk about the origins of mythological creatures and want to recommend them…
I imagine you’re already using The Flight of Dragons…
Sadly, this will be restricted to more historical/descriptive mythology rather than fantasy!
Oh no, the book is a scientific analysis of how dragon flight would work if dragons existed. Only the movie based on it is a fantasy adventure.
Adrienne Mayor has written several interesting books and articles about possible archaeological origins of ancient myths.
Just looked this up–looks very relevant! Thanks! Our library’s got the two books of hers I’m interested in, too
Also going to check out Remarkable creatures:epic adventures in the search for the origins of species by Sean B. Carroll and The evolution of the dragon by G. Elliot Smith, who now seems to have been a bit wrong about a lot of the theories he put forward relating to cultural evolution but should be interesting/relevant regardless.
Still looking’ up more
relatedly: today (before I got the okay from my professor for this as a paper) I am wearing my Dragon Phylogeny shirt
Is that who wrote Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries? We used that one as a textbook in anthro class. It is about people believing ancient things were created by aliens and similar myths. Maybe there is something in there about dragons?
No, that’s by Kenneth Feder. Adrienne Mayor does a different sort of research.
This isn’t dragons persay but boingboing just posted a link to a talk on the origins of werewolves that might be interesting.
In archaeology today I found out I was the only one of our class (there’s only 7 of us, but whatever) that got everything on the maps we drew right. I had the elevations correct, the locations correct, everything labelled, and clearly presented.
Aww yiss.
So that was cool, and a nice ego boost because I’ve been feeling particularly dumb-and-useless of late.
But the plans to go to Rocky Horror and meet my friend fizzled out because she can’t make it over here (she’s about 2 hours away).
I maybe could go there instead, since I don’t have THAT much to do this weekend… I dunno.
Ways you know your Sociology/Psychology class is awesome:
1) You spend more time doing fun and creative projects than you have in any class since early elementary school.
2) Even the notes you take are interesting.
3) Certain class days are dedicated to watching movies for a grade, including My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Far and Away.
4) Your Sociology textbook was full of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.
5) Your Psychology textbook is full of The Far Side comics.
6) Today’s class was dedicated to watches Mythbusters.
Yes, I am describing my own class.
Wait… Should this go on the Win thread?
It’s funny, aside from 4 and 5 that sounds like the components of what would be my personal class-from-Hell.
Well, and excepting 2. But I usually find my notes interesting, so dunno.
is swallowing air at an exiting part of a book or movie a good habbit to get into?
i just need to watch StarTrek and i belch all night.
Had a code yellow lockdown at school today…
So, my assistant principal goes on the intercom and says,
“We are in code yellow lockdown. Lock all exterior doors and remain put. Thank you.”
So, naturally, I freak out. I start to hyperventilate and everyone else is like, “Oh, its just a drill, no big deal..”
FYI- It was NOT a drill!!! We stayed in our class for an extra hour and a half doing homewrk and playing telephone. (Not so bad, eh?)
I come to learn 2 potential stories: One from my dad (fairly reliable) and one from kids at my school (not so reliable)
Both stories are quite entertaining, actually.
So, my school is about a block away from a gun and pawn shop. Not the best place for a bunch of people to learn. Anyways, apparently, someone broke into the gun and pawn shop, stole a gun, and shot someone in downtown (about 2 blocks away from my school)
This story was brought to you by the kids at my school.
My dad’s story is that someone broke into an elderly couple’s home near my school. Not really sure what happened there, so this story is far less entertaining.
Chances are, my life will decide to follow the less interesting path. *sigh*
So you would prefer that someone was shot?
The balance must be maintained!
NO!!!! It would just be a little more… interesting:)
But, my friends watched the news and CONFIRMED my dad’s theory!
The story becomes a little more interesting, as I come to find out that the man showed the elderly couple a weapon, saying, “GIMME YOUR MONEY!” (or smething to that effect), and ran off with the money! The police are still looking for the guy with the $$$$$$$$$$$$$
My friends and I have decided that we will hold a Steampunk/ Chocolate/ German/ Trenchcoat /Squid tea party.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Typing with Vriska’s quirk is really entertaining.
I find that typing with Kanaya’s tend to actually make me start to talk like her.
Who?
Homestuck.
IRL, it’s starting to seem like everyone I want to be friends with is obsessed with it. Is it really that amazing? I viewed a tiny bit of the beginning, and it was… entertaining, but there’s so much of it! It would have to be really good to be worth all that, and what I saw wasn’t exceptional…
I’ve never read Homestuck either, and don’t really plan to. It just doesn’t seem like something I would enjoy.
So in computer class, we had to do a partner project where we made an advertisement for a product we were pretending to sell online, using vocabulary words like ‘marketplace’. Sounds really boring, right? My partner (an assigned partner, too) agreed, and we decided that we needed to advertise for something truly interesting. We discussed this at length, and for a while we couldn’t think of anything we both loved. Then I had an idea. And we’re selling… a leucro(ca)(t)ta/Leucrocuta. As a pet.
You’re probably wondering what that is. Here are some descriptions:
According to Pliny, it’s “the swiftest of all beasts, about the size of an ass, with a stag’s haunches, a lion’s neck, tail and breast, badger’s head, cloven hoof, mouth opening right back to the ears, and ridges of bone in place of rows of teeth—this animal is reported to imitate the voices of human beings.”
According to Wikipedia, “Later bestiaries of the Middle Ages confounded various accounts, so that one finds the largely mythical creature given differing names and various characteristics, real and imaginary. Among the characteristics not found in the ancient sources was the idea that the eyes of a crocotta* were striped gems that could give the possessor oracular powers when placed under the tongue.”
According to the Dungeons and Dragons Monstrous Manual, “The average leucrotta stands 7 feet tall at the shoulder and can reach a length of 9 feet in its mature form … The so-called teeth are sickly gray, and its eyes glow with a feral red light. The smell of animals, decomposing on a hot humid day follows the leucrotta, and its breath is especially bad … This monster is very sly and can imitate a range of noises and voices, the most common ones being a man, a woman, a child, or domestic animals in pain. It uses these noises in order to trick its prey into approaching within attack distance. It hunts humans, demihumans, humanoids, and even other animal predators. Leucrotta are intelligent and can speak their own language as well as the common tongue.
Leucrotta attack by biting … It is rumored that their bony ridges and jaws are so powerful that they can even bite through metal … Once an opponent is rendered helpless, a leucrotta will leave its prize and attack any other intruders if the melee is still going on. It will give chase to an enemy, but will never pursue beyond sight of any prey it has managed to already capture.
When a leucrotta retreats, it turns its back on its opponent and kicks with its hind legs, causing … damage with each hoof.
Note to trackers: It is almost impossible to identify leucrotta tracks, since they look exactly like a stag’s … This ugly creature haunts deserted and desolate places because most other creatures cannot bear the sight of it. Its ugliness is legendary. Leucrotta lair in treacherous ravines and rocky spires, because they are as surefooted as a mountain goat. Caves, old abandoned towers, or a hollowed out deadfall are the preferred lairs for this disgusting beast.
For every four leucrotta found in a lair, there is a 10% chance that an extra one, an immature leucrotta of half strength, is also present. Leucrotta are not a very family oriented species, as their nasty tempers extend sometimes to each other. The beasts range over a 20-mile area.
Since the leucrotta is not a very social creature, all strangers are nothing more than sources of food. Sometimes, a powerful chaotic evil person may entrap a leucrotta and force it to serve as a guardian, but such beasts rebel at the first opportunity … There are rumors that leucrotta saliva is an effective antidote to love philters, but so far there have been no volunteers to test this theory.”
Leucrotta were also referred to in the book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Topsell believed it was the same animal as the manticore. Modern scholars think it may have been based on the hyena.
And a genus of mayflies was named after it.
In short, it’s basically the awesomest monster ever, all the more so for its obscurity.
And my partner is as excited about this as I am!
*See ‘given differing names.’ There’s some doubt as to whether or not a crocatta and a leucro(ca)tta are the same, but I’m guessing these powers were attributed to the latter at least once, given the confusion.
Hey, so my blogiversary passed a few days ago and I forgot.
Wow. It doesn’t feel like it has been a year.
Happy blogiversary! May you be with us for many more years to come!
Today my friend told me that in fifth grade the other fifth grade teacher would talk to her class about me. Like “Do you guys know Rainbow? Is she … okay? I think she has problems.”
One day in high school when I was absent, my AP Economics teacher apparently told the class that he viewed me as the supervillain type.
I was very proud of that.
As long as you use your super powers for the Kokonspiracy!
I joke that supervillains who are economics majors want “World Domination, or at least strategic polarity with China.”
Wow. XD
My middle school band director thought I was very strange. He also thought Agent Hippie was very quiet and peaceful. Teachers can get such skewed perceptions of their students. It’s very amusing.
I know that when my sister and I were applying to my current school, they put her down as likely to come, and me as likely to choose a different school instead.
Guess who ended up going.
I don’t know about teachers, but:
Back when my sister was still in middle school (she’s three years younger than me, and went to the same middle school I did), she kept telling me how several other students a) mistook her for me and b) called her the “Queen of Weird” because of it.
I was so thrilled that my title outlasted my actual time at the school, especially since I’d thought that the only person who used it who was a grade or more younger than me was Cskia.
Eh, titles can be ridiculously hard to get rid of. I was still referred to as “the girl who beat up W.” by my sister’s classmates… basically until I graduated and stopped seeing my sisters classmates.
Psssh! that’s nothing!
my mom always thinks i am obedient and always does whatever she says even though i reeeeeeeeeeealy don’t want to do it!
Like, the other day she wanted to take me to her new house and have lunch. but i said i didn’t want to but she said we were going to talk about stuff that shouldn’t be discussed in public and then when we got to her house we hardly talked about anything at all!
Today was the ____ Christmas Parade, marking the very exact end of the marching band season. The last time this year that I’ll wear that uniform. I talked to a female trombonist (hooray for female trombonists! We were both the only ones in our marching bands) from another band.
Then our drumline did this EPIC DRUM THING with two other drumlines. They had this epic drum battle thing like from that movie Drumline and then they played together and all the guard girls danced to it. Fun times.
I’m going to miss marching band so much. But at least I’m a freshman, so three more years to go!
I am making ratatouille in the style of the movie Ratatouille, with thin slices of vegetables stacked in a pan! I’ll try to post a picture of it on the Cooking and Food thread, if I may. It’s rather pretty.
I am also ignoring the mountain of final-project homework I have, in favor of Slings and Arrows! Season three is making me cry.
Happy Hanukkah!
Slings and Arrows! Slings and Arrows! God I love that show! My friend and I recently decided I need someone who is to me as Darren Nicholls is to Geoffrey.
I am Choklit Orange; deal with that.
(When discussing my headcanons about modern!Hamlet the other day I may or may not have realized that he’s basically Darren Nicholls.
“Hamlet, everyone cries when they’re stabbed! There’s no shame in that!”)
Slings and Arrows is excellent.
The Doctor Who Christmas special will have a new TARDIS interior!
Did the Doctor change the desktop theme again because he’s really sad?
I like the Gallifreyan, though, so I’ll give it a “meh.”
Yes–I’m, um, tentatively excited. I think. The little snippet the BBC is taunting us with looks nice. I’d like them to keep the elevated glass floor from the current design: I enjoy seeing The Doctor underneath it, doing repairs.
How To Cure Pentaphobia:
I don’t know! That’s why im asking you!
Today in the mail:
my tuition bill for next semester
my free Twinings tea
I am excited about exactly one of these things.
in MY mailbox today:
a light bill
a catalog
a chrismas present (Don’t peek!)
a catalog
a catalog
a catalog
and…. another catalog
Dad has been ordering tons of catalogs lately. For something to do
I got my Twinings tea yesterday!
Rainbow has put up Christmas lights inside her room and is listening to Owl City. Rainbow is happy.
Also, you should all go see Rise of The Guardians.
I did today. *melts over Jack*
I have heard very good things about that movie.
As have I.
I WANT to go see it but i missed the theater in my area. so we’ll just have to buy it at the store.
Published in the school paper which came out a few days ago! Except this isn’t a terribly impressive achievement given that the EIC was desperate for articles and begged me to write this one, hah.
(quietly pokes head in)
I’m doing pretty good.
Oh, goodness me, my blogiversery passed nearly a month ago! Five years since then, wow. Thanks again for the great start at adolescence.
*glomps* Welcome back! How`s life?
Zinc! Hi! Great to see you.
Zinc! *tacklehugs*
Hey, Zinc! Great to see one of my first MB friends on here again.
Zinc! Hi! *welcoming pies*
Hi Zinc! I remember you! Come join the party!
Hi Zinc!
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys. I got a perfect score on my Bio test the other day. *Flutter-yay*
I mean, granted, the only reason I got a perfect was by missing two questions and then getting two bonus questions, so there was still some things missed, but still. :3
…so, Life of Pi is probably the best movie I’ve seen all year. See it in 3-D if you can.
I have this strange reflex wherein when I have a glass of soymilk, I feel compelled to raise it and solemnly rumble, “Hail the victorious dead.”
Choklit Orange: making dinner more awkward since 1997.
What I find really funny is that soy milk, translated from Spanish, means “I am milk.”
Made from “I am beans.”
I just got back from my organ jury, and wowzers I’m happy with how it went. I think this may be the proudest I’ve felt of any performance I’ve done in my entire career in music. Out of context, it wasn’t a phenomenal performance–I could’ve used a few more weeks to prepare–but the improvement over just last Thursday is enormous. I’m not sure how it happened. At my last lesson, I did not feel at all ready, and my professor and I were discussing “backup plans” for easier registration and piston changes and that sort of thing. But somehow over the last two or three days of focused, determined practice, something just clicked in my brain, and the numerous problems I’ve been having with my Alain for months just disappeared.
Sorry for the little spiel there, I’m just really excited about this.
Congratulations, sounds like you did really well!
I think you all should know that o,3,o is the emoticon for Swalot’s and only a Swalot may use it but then again, I should probably share it… Whatever, I shall be a greedy Swalot!
It can also come in other forms such as O,3,O for O_O or Q,3,Q for Q_Q or ^,3,^ for ^_^
So yeah! Enjoy!
I’m pretty sure Cskia was already using that emoticon to refer to you before you joined MB.
As in:
*C <3 ^,3,^ s (esp. the mustache)
Guess it could be some sort of inequality? *C < 3^,(3^s) (and maybe * and , denote some sort of new operation?)
…It's 1 AM and I don't think I make much sense. What is sleep?
*DUMB*QUESTION*ALERT*
What’s a Swalot?
Pokemon/*Cskia’s nickname for Areohawk.
Also, Swalots like to eat. That’s why it sounds like ‘swallow.’
Eevee is also a Pokemon, and it’s Swalot’s nickname for *C.
It’s okay, I only learned that a few months ago, after hearing her say it for years.
so much work
everything is due this week
big mineral drawer geology project test-equivalent conversation with my prof tomorrow and I still don’t know what 13 of the 52 are
and I need to do compositions for a lot of them but I won’t be able to use the drawer till around 6pm
and then a big research report due friday and a lab report due thursday and something is due on wednesday and I can’t remember what it is
fjdskmla
on the plus side
Seeing the Hobbit thursday night (what big paper due friday)
And going to a concert wednesday night for a band I love (…what… papers… due thursday and friday… well. whoops).
Just nine more bones and I can eat…
Just nine more bones and I can eat…
Motivation for research for the Brain Game team meeting tomorrow seems to be going well.
That’s a very Baba-Yaga-esque mantra.
I wasn’t eating the bones.
Or am I misunderstanding?
Either way, that’s pretty funny.
Baba Yaga grinds bones into flour, I think.
Oh…
Then that makes perfect sense.
It’s very hard to hit squids and pies precisely on a phone, so sorry if I ever miss.
I’m a full time tenor sax now! Like it a lot better than the clarinet, just gonna say. I’m section leader of three freshmen and it’s just the four of us, really great. Our clarinets are the antithesis of fun.
If you have the Hallmark channel, you’ll be able to catch us at the end of the Hollywood Christmas parade that I believe is airing tonight!
I like to think that there’s so many pies and squids flying back and forth around here that there’s bound to be some stray ones once in a while.
Great job with the music-ing! If I had that channel (or a TV, for that matter) I’d watch it.
Pies squelching squids, squids swallowing pies — the cathassus never ends.
Whoaaa how did I miss this post? ZINC, WILL YOU BE MY TENOR SAX BUDDY?
So apparently there’s a fan-made system for writing in circular Gallifreyan, and it’s quite spectacular! I love making my name look all fancy and timey-wimey! And “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” looks spectacular, too.
The system breaks down when writing long sentences–since everything’s supposed to be encompassed in a circle, there ends up being a lot of white space. Maybe there should be a limit of 3-4 large words per circle? “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” works well because it has three large words and three small ones.
Or maybe a spiral, though that wouldn’t look as good.
So today I discovered MLP:FiM on YouTube in Spanish (thanks, Piggy!), CPM’s Gallifreyan writing system and that there’s project to translate tv tropes into German… I’ll see you in sometime in 2013…
I watch MLP:FiM in German probably for the exact same reason!
How clear would you say the analogy “A was the Qui-Gon to B’s Luke” is to express the sense of “A was B’s mentor’s mentor?”
It’s not very clear to me, since I was never really a big Qui-Gon fan and more or less figured that Obi-Wan became a good Jedi despite Qui-Gon’s teachings, not because of them. It might make more sense to Original Trilogy fans.
What about “A was the Dooku to B’s Obi-wan (only not evil)”? I think mentions quite explicitly in the movies that Qui-Gon was once Dooku’s apprentice, though the whole not-evil thing might just confuse people more.
The trouble with that analogy, though, is that Obi-Wan met (and fought) Dooku, while Luke never met Qui-Gon and was only influenced by him through Obi-Wan.
Someone on another site asked “I wonder if John Stapp inspired Felix Baumgartner?” and I’m mildly stoked about answering her because I’ve been doing research on that topic for the past two months and know the answer is: yes, indirectly. Stapp was Joseph Kittinger’s boss and mentor in the Aeromedical Research Lab in the 50s and the Principal Investigator for the Excelsior project, for which Kittinger was the test pilot. During Excelsior, Kittinger set the records that Baumgartner broke in October, after several years of training with Kittinger’s guidance.
So, if I say, “Yes, he was the Qui-Gon to his Luke”, the analogy is that she is presumably aware that a younger protagonist (Skywalker/Baumgartner) with an older mentor (Kenobi/Kittinger) exists within the present timeframe, but may not know that decades ago, when that mentor was younger, he was in turn mentored by a more obscure, now-deceased, figure (Jinn/Stapp). This older figure never met the present protagonist, but is, through his student, an influence on him.
I used the Star Wars analogy and she seemed to understand, and thanked me for my explaination.
I think it depends on the intended audience.
(Once upon a time, you would have written “A was the Socrates to B’s Aristotle” and every passably educated person would have understood you.)
I would understand that analogy a lot faster than the Star Wars one. Of course, a classicist probably isn’t the best person to ask about this question.
I understood yours immediately, but I don’t even know who Qui-Gon is (sorry, shoot me if you want).
No, no, that’s totally fine that you don’t know who Qui-Gon is.
It’s a good thing you haven’t seen the Star Wars prequels, or at least don’t remember them very well.
Just forget they ever existed…
Actually, the fact that you have been spared of the Star Wars prequels is commendable.
But i thought you Watched Doctor Who?
if that is what you were refrancing…
*Reads last few posts*
BLARGG im dumb
You’re probably better off not knowing about the prequel trilogy anyway.
He was Obi-Wan’s master before the fall of the Old Republic, that’s really all that’s relevant. (As the others point out, some related elements of the story get a little outlandish and silly, so that’s basically all you need to know.)
Of course, all this talk of the prequels (including this post and any replies posted, but these should make up a small enough fraction of the total posts on this as to not have much effect either way) may make Biblio more curious about seeing them.
Personally, I knew the prequels were bad before I watched them. On the other hand, with the other examples of works with bad sequels I can think of, I’ve so far restrained myself. Possibly because I’ve also been emphatically warned they’ll ruin the original for, or possibly because I’m less worried about being left out because I haven’t seen the sequels.
Oh, he’s from the prequels? And the prequels are bad? I see.
(…In other words, I know very, very little about Star Wars, including the aspects that are presumably good, and I just assumed that he was from a part that a lot of you liked, if so many of you were discussing him).
(Also, incidentally, I haven’t seen Doctor Who. I’m sure it’s very good, though. If I ever run out of musicals, Disney movies, videos by the Green brothers, and Harry Potter-related podcasts to listen to while doing homework, I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to resort to television, and if that does happen, rest assured it’s at the top of my list of shows to try. It’s just that that list is low on my list of media to pay attention to. Which admittedly doesn’t excuse my lack of familiarity with Star Wars, since those are movies).
It’s okay, if you ever want to know about Star Wars, I and, I am sure many other MBers, will be very glad to fill you in.
With Obi-Wan being Plato, right? *googles* I like that analogy.
Of course, I’m guessing that Muse Academy teaches that sort of thing (alongside World Domination and Pie Throwing, of course).
I had to check, too, I always get the order of mentorship confused with those three…
They go in reverse alphabetical order.
Extending the chain, you could also say “A was to B as Plato was to Alexander the Great.” (Aristotle taught Alexander.)
That I knew.
It certainly does.
Five days of clothing, bathroom stuff, meds, books, etc in one backpack: mission successful.
I did cheat slightly by putting my bras in my violin case though.
I packed my underwear with my cello once, so don’t worry about it.
I packed underwear in my violin case when I moved here (airline space restrictions, gah); everything was fine until we went through Tokyo and a security officer opened my case.
I have a competition with my friend Wizard to see who has a more complete Band Survival Kit in their case: He has earbuds and a necktie, along with his mouthpiece, mute, etc. I have a sewing kit, bandaids, sunglasses in case I need to look cool, hand lotion, chapstick, granola bars, duct tape, feminine hygiene, deodorant, hair clips, hair elastics, hair brush, safety pins, paperclips, and extra socks. Along with my neck strap, classical and jazz mouthpieces and ligatures, staff paper, sharpies, pencils, and reeds reeds reeds.
But then again, he plays trumpet, so there’s only so much room for survival kits.
This year my (Half) family is doing a Twelve Days Of Christmas-thing where on the twelve upcoming days before Christmas i get a present. Nothing TOOOO special (Saving the juicy pieces of December steak for last, So To Speak) and i hope i get more nail polish! lost my dark purple stuff and ive been having to use my pink one which is the same color as my original fingernails so you can hardly notice it. unless you realize that part of my fingernail is chipping off!
Can’t wait untill Friday! then it’s Twelve Days officially.
((Psst! i checked on Dad’s eBay list! (i know i cheated) and i figured out im getting Zelda, Spirit Tracks the video game for DS!!!! Don’t tell my dad though
))
Legend of Zelda! I’m not personally a huge gamer but do you like the music? My friend is rather obsessed with it.
LUV DAT MUSIC!!!!!!!i got it today for the first day of christmas!
“On the first day of Christmas the mailman mailed to me,
One Zelda game!”
To end my streak of posts for the day: Top Gear (in general) is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen.
Aww, you changed the calendar. I preferred “Day with lots of 12s in it (Location: it)”.
Wow, my mum is really mad at me. There are worse forms for anger to take than ignoring me wherever possible, though. I think that eventually I’ll manage to explain myself, she’ll forget and/or forgive of her own accord, or my dad will do something even worse. The last one is very likely, given enough time.
I’m not actually feeling the rejection that strongly, as long as I have someone to talk to. It’s mostly because my emotions in general aren’t too strong right now, and haven’t been for most of the last year or two, except when I find something to get immersed in or really dread. I’m also in that mildly sleep-deprived state where things seem unreal and reminders of your own sentience are weirdly unpleasant.
I got slightly worse marks overall than last semester, but at least I’m the top student in physics class instead of the 2nd. My admirers won’t mind either way.
Thinking about the rankings too much reminds me of how schoolwork has consumed my life. I really need to go back to my real life over the holidays, or I’ll be sick of school before the first holidays.
On a more postive note: I still possess curiosity. Mmm, physics. I’m reading “The Gods Themselves” by Isaac Asimov, and enjoying it. I’ve been reading a lot of one particular ongoing 40+chapter ATLA fanfiction, Shadow of the Dragon King.
THE GODS THEMSELVES IS MY FAVORITE THING BY ASIMOV
AND I HAVE READ A LOT OF ASIMOV
(AS IN PROBABLY ~30-40 NOVELS/SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS)
which reminds me, I should reread some Heinlein, just for the nostalgic value of it. see if I can still see past the misogyny in exchange for a SPACE THRILLER.
I’m something of an Asimov fan myself. I’ve only read three of his short stories and the original Foundation trilogy, but I’m increasing that number. Which should also lead to my reading some other classic SF.
I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT CLASSIC SF
here are my recommendations:
-The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is my absolute favorite Heinlein, although I have a fondness for Tunnel in the Sky because it was the first one I read and I was like eight??? AVOID LATE HENILEIN AT ALL COSTS — I’ve heard his editors kind of just let him do whatever and his work really suffered as a result, personally I’ve never read anything with Lazarus Long and I don’t regret that life choice at all. Also I really didn’t like Stranger in a Strange Land either time I read it, don’t go in thinking “it’s famous so it must be good”
-Asimov: I, Robot and The Gods Themselves are perennial favorites. I also really enjoy the Caves of Steel trilogy (I think it ties in with Foundation at some point, but I always thought of Caves of Steel/Naked Sun/Robots of Dawn as the trilogy???). Also, while almost all of his short stories are pretty great (do note that he wrote some mystery stories as well as science fiction), Nightfall is among the best of them. (Nightfall is also a novel, which I don’t remember if I’ve read, but the short story version I definitely own).
-You’ve read the Earthsea cycle? (by Ursula LeGuin) She also wrote The Left Hand of Darkness, which received a couple prominent awards and did some subversive things with gender as I recall? My favorite is The Lathe of Heaven, but most people don’t like it as much as I do.
-I don’t know as much about Arthur C. Clarke as some people, I’ve pretty much only read 2001 and a couple other random things, but he’s the other big name in Golden Age SF with Asimov and Heinlein. I liked this short story of his: downlode.org/Etext/nine_billion_names_of_god.html
My boyfriend has this to say about Clarke:
Clarke’s notable in that his prose is arguably better than that of Asimov
Asimov often focused less on characters in many of his stories than he did on new worlds
I also took a course titled “Science Fiction and Society” as my freshman writing course, it had much more of a feminist slant than my prior experiences with SF, here are a couple stories I read for it that were fantastic:
-Story of Your Life, Ted Chiang
-When It Changed, Joanna Russ (DON’T READ *ABOUT* THIS BEFORE YOU READ IT EVERYWHERE IS SPOILERS)
(I meant to list others here, there was definitely one by LeGuin, but I can’t find my syllabus and Wikipedia searching hasn’t helped me find it yet:( )
Non-classic SF that I like, in no order:
-Harry Harrison wrote the novella Make Room, Make Room that Soylent Green came from, his other work I also found entertaining
-Ray Bradbury: oh my god I can’t believe I didn’t already mention Bradbury, between Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles he is one of the best SF authors
-I really love Neal Stephenson and William Gibson
-I can’t make a SF recommendation masterpost without mentioning Dune, the sequels aren’t as good but the original is
-I have a weakness for Cory Doctorow, I don’t like his later work as much, but When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth is one of my favorites. Be warned though, it’s not cheerful
-Kurt Vonnegut wrote some SF (Cat’s Cradle, Sirens of Titan) which I love love love
-Anne McCaffrey claims that her Pern novels are science fiction, they are about dragons though.
-I am probably forgetting something, please tell me if I am!
Thank you very much! I can’t immediately think of anything not mentioned here, but am definitely going to go through whatever books we have at home. If I really love or otherwise consider something important, I’ll probably end up mentioning it on the blog.
Of what you’ve listed, I’ve only read 2001 and Fahrenheit 451, which at least means they’re really useful recommendations. I haven’t actully read anything by LeGuin, but want to now. I’m glad you’ve recommended some specifically feminist works. Yes, more recent and fantasy-genre works do appeal to me as well as older science fiction.
I now have rope-lights in my bedcave, which is absolutely glorious. It was always really dark in here (because there is one large overhead light in my room), so having it lit well is cozy and delightful.
Hopefully I won’t get in trouble for it, since they’re somewhat illegal in the dorms.
But I’m probably going to do a little bit of re-tucking and then put this tapestry thing over them so they’ll shine through the fabric and not be super obvious.
Also our hyper-vigilant RA is moving to a different dorm.
I sent an email to a boat about working as a deckhand this summer, hopefully they’ll reply soon. I’m starting to get kind of worried about finding work this summer. Eurgh.
The boat I applied to today is a schooner. I like schooners alright, but I really miss square sails. *sigh*
At least she has a raffi sail, which is kind of like a square. And she’s a really good boat, and if I work on her I’ll be in the Great Lakes and around a whole lot of other tall ships, which will be great. I really hope I get the job.
And now that I’ve made at least a tiny amount of progress on one piece of homework, I think I’m going to go to bed at a reasonable time for the first time in a while.
bluh bluh bluh bluh
meant to work for like
the last hour and half
guess what I didn’t do
well… one hour… to pump out this report…
we’ll see
I’m so bad at working before the day somethings due. It’s not good. Blergl.
I did not do the report. I wrote part of the methods section. Wherp wherp wherp wherp wherp
When I get home, after finals I want to do a big Three Investigators re-read, and a big Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries re-read.
This morning before the first bell, some friends and friends-of-friends and I were standing in our customary place – against the wall next to the library and inside the main building – and talked about violas, cellos, basses, and orchestra in general. (I’m not in the school orchestra, but I was in band class in 6th grade, so I could still keep up with the conversation easily.)
The reason for this was that one of the friends-of-friends was in the orchestra and had his viola with him. One of my friends kept begging him to play it for us, so eventually he did, leaving his viola case open on the ground (because it was easier than closing it, only to open and close it again, and because he was too lazy to shove it against the wall with his foot).
He got about halfway through the one song he has entirely memorized how to play before exclaiming “I got a penny!” None of us had noticed the person who had evidently walked by and tossed the penny into his viola case, but immediately after he said that, the friend who had begged him to play added her own ten cents to it. At which point he put on his “evil face” and did the whole “I’m rich! I’m rich!” thing in his best take-over-the-world voice.
Have I mentioned recently how awesome my school is?
To write “Friendship is magic” in Gallifreyan, you have to spell it “magik”. Granny Weatherwax would not approve.
*shakes fist very loudly*
I love Christmas so much.
I’m now kind of regretting choosing the flight on Christmas eve, because I’d really like to go to a service, because as much as I rag on Christians, and as in-flux my own feelings on religion are, I still think that Christmas is one of the most beautiful holidays ever and I love it so very, very much.
Like, tearing-up-and-feeling-about-ready-to-explode love it.
Yesterday, someone wore a Gryffindor scarf to school, and it sparked a whole huge argument about which Hogwarts House was the best. It was awesome. I wasn’t quite the only person arguing for Hufflepuff, either!
Also, I understand the concept of loving and hating something at the same time much better than before I started at this school. I have, like, no free time now, and it’s somehow worth it. It’s to the point where a) we’re so overworked that we spend basically a whole class period complaining, but b) our teacher understands, does not get angry, and gives us advice that works. And we’re going on a field trip to go ice skating (indoors, of course, because in Houston, we don’t have actual, natural ice to skate on). And that thing where we volunteer instead of having classes on Friday is amazing. And the things we’re learning are interesting! *obligatory “except in geometry, which I’ve been too busy to test out of so far” qualifier*
But seriously, I have been missing so much sleep, it is not right.
That was kind of incoherent, but the tone was supposed to be something like, “I can’t believe they managed to make it so awesome here that I’m still really, really glad to be there despite being busier than I pretty much ever have been and also more sleep-deprived. That’s impressive. I keep wanting to complain and rave about it at the same time.”
back hoooome
from a wonderful wonderful concert
Eluveitie and Wintersun
and oh my god were they good
what good music
what good stage presence
ahhhh
I’m so in love with them
Did I mention Grant went too? It was fun tiny kokon-times ahh yay having friends with similar taste in music relatively close
also: the report is partially written but not done
wherp
Term has ended! I can’t believe it’s been an entire term already. I won’t be back at school until the 8th of January, but I’m so looking forward to the Christmas holidays. Unfortunately I’m starting off by being on a freezing cold train, thanks Chiltern Railways…
SFTDP problem solved, next carriage is much warmer.
& emailed us this image with the subject line “Something horrifying I found on Etsy”:
She added, “Who would do such a thing?”
*Mutters St. Patrick’s Rune while frantically making the sign of the cross*
I can see how that image would be doubly upsetting to you, KaiYves.
I find myself wondering who, other than a veteran MBer (
possiblyprobably one who reads H. P. Lovecraft), would even imagine something like this.According to the part of my astronomy textbook I was studying earlier today, there will be a total solar eclipse in the North Atlantic near Iceland during Spring Break of my senior year. (March 2015.) It might be realistic enough to make an attempt at, but I also want to remain true to my sixth-grade vow to buy a Virgin Galactic ticket during the year after graduation, which would not be conductive to such an extravagant trip. Maybe I should look for Study Abroad programs in Iceland?
Yes! You can have Egils Mix in Real Life!
How can you resist?
I have a slight problem. The airline I’m taking on Wednesday has a weight limit of 20 kilograms for checked in luggage. My suitcase currently weighs a few (three-ish) kilograms over that. I am going to reorganise everything before I go to make sure I’ll wear/take the heavier things as hand luggage (which are included in the total at the moment) which should cut it down – but by how much I’m not sure. Is there anything I can do to avoid paying seven quid for each extra kilo of baggage?
I don’t know about your airline, but most ones I’ve flown with will turn a blind eye if your luggage is only a kilo or so overweight. But if you take a backpack as hand luggage and stuff all your books in there, you can easily take at least three kilos off your total and then you’re golden.
Wear something with a lot of pockets and stick it in your pockets.
Thank you both, that’s good advice. It’s easyjet – my aunt thinks they will be strict, but my dad thinks they’ll allow it if it’s just over, maybe 21 or 22. To be on the safe side I am planning on loading my backpack with as many heavy things as I can, but it isn’t a terribly big backpack. Hopefully it’s all right, and worst comes to worst, seven quid isn’t a huge amount.
The last time I flew with them, they weren’t very strict, but we were flying as a group (i.e. they might’ve let the kid with 23 kilos through because the one next to her only had 15).
I’m flying alone though, as you may have inferred, so it may be different. I hope it doesn’t end up being a huge amount over (even now, including all heavy stuff, it’s about three kilos too much) but if it does, I hope they’ll be lenient. Fingers crossed.
They will probably be strict if its like us airlines…I’d pack a few of the heavier things on top and then you can move them to your carry on as necessary.
So there was just a mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, CT, which is about an hour from me and half an hour from New Haven, for those who need a point of reference.
The internet is not up to date, but the news channels are reporting, as of right now, upwards of 27 dead.
I’m watching it on the Beeb now.. I’m shocked. It’s absolutely horrific. I’ve heard it said (though I don’t know how reliably) that eighteen children have been killed. Sometimes, humanity can be so egregiously astounding. I don’t know what to say.. there are no words, really.
I think 18 children, 9 adults, principal and vice principal included, was the final count. Plus the shooter.
Three injured, and the gunman was about 20 and had apparently “been in the principle’s office, raging about the PA system” and then shot the principal and went room to room.
That puts this, I believe, only just behind Virginia Tech and well ahead of Columbine in sheer numbers – second or third deadliest school shooting in the USA. Don’t know about mass murder numbers as a whole or about other countries, but this is definitely up there.
Oh dear…
My English teacher turned on the news in the middle of class to show us… and I was watching it, and… why? That’s just all I can think… why? Why do people do these things?
The New York Times is reporting that the gunman’s mother was a teacher at the school and that he shot her first. That doesn’t explain the violence, but it does indicate that it wasn’t random.
Sometimes I am very ashamed and terrified for the future of this species.
When these things happen (and they do, oh God, too often) I always notice that what people say immediately is, “He must have been mentally ill.”
And obviously there’s something wrong with that; why do we blame mental illness for all of our problems? why is it our scapegoat? why won’t we believe that the neurotypical can also do horrific things? But in another way it gives me hope, I think.
We cannot comprehend what it is like to willingly murder. We cannot comprehend what it is like to have that much hate in our hearts. We cannot comprehend what it is like to be able to kill children. We are, ultimately and fundamentally, a species that is filled with the urge to reach out to each other; we need each other to survive, not just physically but emotionally.
Human beings love each other. It’s built into us. It runs in our veins so deeply that when we see someone with that much hatred, the only thing we can think of to say is that something must have gone wrong, some part of their brains must not be functioning properly. It makes us feel sick to think about killing children. That’s who we are. That’s how we’re made.
I believe in this species. I find, if nothing else, a comfort in our ability to grieve. It doesn’t make what has happened better, and it doesn’t make sure that it won’t happen again. But it shows that there is still hope for us. I believe that, if I believe anything at all.
The shooter did have a history of mental problems, according to his brother, though I haven’t heard any specifics. But it’s always important to remember that even if crimes of this nature tend to be the product of serious mental disturbance, only a tiny percentage of mentally ill persons commits acts of violence.
can I just take a moment to reflect on this tragedy, because I’ve been having a lot of trouble trying to get from incoherent feelings to words I can post publicly, but I’m scared that if I don’t say anything about mental illness in a respectful way, I will live knowing that I could have, said something to make our discourse less hard to bear
I live an hour from Newtown; I used to go to summer camp in Danbury, and I’m pretty sure that while most of the people I was closer to lived in other nearby towns in Connecticut there were people from Newtown who I knew and interacted with. So I really can’t tell what an appropriate level of response is — it feels so personally tragic to me that I don’t know what to think when I see my friends from Illinois and Texas commenting on the tragedy. Does tragedy truly unify us? Or do they see it through a more distorted lens, a lens which looks to strengthen things they think they already know?
My friend from Illinois, we worked on a programming project together this summer, he posted a news article, and commented with this:
“Seriously. I don’t care how crazy you are, don’t take it out on other people (especially not children). If I ever met one of those [snipped]… it would not be pretty.”
And I wonder if it should be making me as upset as it does, that comment. Because everyone seems to think that’s a perfectly reasonable response. And if I express concern over the wording used, I already know what the response is: I didn’t mean you, you’re not crazy, you’re just sick.
Why am I sick if he’s crazy? Where is the line drawn? Is it when you cause harm to other people? Physical harm, or will emotional be sufficient? I’ve made some poor choices, I’ve upset people with my depression. Where do you draw the line?
More importantly: If it’s so clear to you that I’m fine and he isn’t, then why do you call us by the same words?
People say: it’s a gun control issue and it’s a mental health issue. I’ve heard plenty of solutions for the gun control half of it. And for mental health: “make it easier to get help.” That’s all.
And really, doesn’t it just become so much easier to go ask for help when you know that by doing so you’ve become the stuff of nightmares?
I found this in a 2000 article the New York Times wrote on rampage killings:
“The Times found much evidence of mental illness in its subjects. More than half had histories of serious mental health problems […] Recent studies have shown that the mentally ill are no more violent than other people, except when they are off their medications, or have been abusing drugs or alcohol.”
Even the New York Times can’t say something like “most of the mentally ill are not ill in ways which pose a danger to others.” The best they can say is “as long as the crazies keep taking their meds, and don’t abuse other drugs, you’re probably okay.”
Maybe I’m oversensitive to this, but then again, maybe it’s just that most people don’t think about it, because they aren’t affected by it. Being “crazy” is an abstract concept, not a reality.
In conclusion:
YES, it needs to be easier to get help. But it needs to be discussed, and thought through, in a way that’s respectful and compassionate towards everyone.
That is a lot to ponder but thank you for posting your feelings. I’m not really sure what to make of it all.
YES. Thank you. This makes so much sense.
♥ Thanks for posting this
I’m pretty sure I agree. It isn’t okay to make generalizations like that about any group of people, especially when you don’t fully understand where they’re coming from. And then backing off and going “no, I didn’t mean you, just the really crazy people” is… blargh. I can’t be very eloquent about this and I’m sorry about that but basically I agree with you, Dodec, and I’m sorry this has affected you so personally. You shouldn’t have to be going through this.
Whenever I hear something like this, I fear for our sanity.
Maybe the words of Fred Rogers will help: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
That is very good advice indeed
It’s so horrifying. *no particularly useful comment, just giving more recognition of the tragedy*
Jesus. The world is terrifying. I can’t believe it. It’s so awful. I just…
I love you guys. I’m glad you’re safe.
IREGUAHUSJGDFNBIAC
I just wrote up a big long monster post about The Hobbit/my hobbit experience
aaaaand all my windows arbitrarily decided to refresh
I will retype my experience late maybe if I can be bothered?
but the gist of it:
THE HOBBIT
The Hobbit
THE HOBBIT!!! I really enjoyed it even though I had some problems with things. Won’t spoiler or talk more about the movie itself here.
I dressed up as an elf and it was awesome. Everyone in the theater seemed to really like my costume, I was one of the more dressed-up in attendance, and a lot of the dressed up people were part of the large group I went with.
One of my favorite costumes though was an Arwen who came with an Aragorn cardboard cutout. It was beautiful. I look a picture of her/him and almost asked if I could take a picture with Aragorn but then the movie was about to start
Anyway I meant to submit this when I wrote it at 2pm but then I fell asleep because I didn’t go to bed until like 6am and then I got up at 8:30am for my 9am class whoops
So… It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it.
-A
Gradster, I remember you! How’s it going?
It’s going, regardless of how!
But for real things have been fine, thanks. & how are you?
-A
I’m doing pretty well, y’know, waiting for break to happen, procrastinating. Glad to hear you’re doing fine!
Ahh, to be on break… To be honest, that’s actually why I’m here- I knew I’d have a lot of free time & wanted to fill it with something I loved. :]
It’s just good to be back.
-A
It has been, hasn’t it! How are you?
I have emerged [relatively] unscathed from the mess that was this semester! And yourself?
-A
Pretty good. I have a buttload of tests right before Winter Break, including a giant World History one, but I feel pretty prepared to study, so that’s taken care of.
Also, I started watching Doctor Who, finally. It’s very good.
Good. I mean, not the tests, but good on being pretty good.
& oh dear. We’ve lost another one…
-A
Gradster! i DON’T remember you! How’s it going!
Haha, hello. I don’t remember you, either. It’s going!
-A
Hi! I remember you, but I never really got to know you very well. It’s good to see you!
Good to see you too. Quiet around these parts!
-A
My mother still sends me Channukah gifts. This year I got a box full of Doctor Who paraphernalia.
Bluh bluh didn’t like The Hobbit as much as I wanted to bluh bluh. *flops into a chair*
Just finished my NYU application, and will submit it tomorrow! Which makes for 8 out of 12 applications done; all I have left are Bard, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin, and Sarah Lawrence. Yay me?
Had a lovely White Elephant party with my friends in which there was so much cuddling, it was ridiculous, I enjoyed it very much. Also got my friends all gifts individually, the best of which was a Communist-flavored soda. I am so darn proud of that Communist-flavored soda. If you can win a friendship I have clearly won in a landslide.
Also have two research papers due, an in-class essay, and a choir concert all on the same day. So this’ll be a fun week. Gaaah. Time to go to bed, I think.
I didn’t know the GRAIL probes were due to end their mission so soon… When I talked to Dr. Zuber in October, she gave the impression they’d do science for much longer.
Got the tree up, baked some cookies, and watched a bit more Doctor Who.
I should really be reading/studying.
Nope nope nope nope
Why don’t I ever know what I’m talking about?
I’m sorry guys, but I don’t feel comfortable here anymore. Whenever we get talking politics, I run my mouth off without thinking and press “comment.” I didn’t know what type of guns she had, and I agree now that I do know that she didn’t need them all.
I’m sorry, but I’ll be leaving for awhile. You guys are all amazing, and I hate that I feel I need to make this decision.
Okay, Agent Hippie. It’s all right. You just come back when you think you can, okay? It might seem like you’ll never come back now, but that’s what I thought, and I’m still here.
Not even sure if you’ll see this, but…
You shouldn’t feel uncomfortable just because you disagree with the majority here or because you made a small fallacy. If you do, then I’m very sorry.
Everyone makes mistakes, especially in debates. Just the other day, I accidentally implied that all computer programmers should be set loose in the Sahara desert because they’d be wrong genre savy and accidentally poison themselves when trying to drink from clear pools of water.
I have no idea what I was trying to prove or disprove(*), but I didn’t win the argument and I think I unintentionally insulted autistic people along the way*. My friends/fellow college students/victims forgave me for it anyway (or they’re just very good at covering up their murder plots).
(*)Something to do with evolution and/or survival of the fittest.
*At least the ones who happened to be computer programmers. Then again, I did imply that people like me should be thrown in front of a bus**, but at that point, I was just trying to win a bet and get H. to laugh.
**Strictly speaking, since I was the ÃœberMe, I’d have been burned at the stake on the way to the nearest public transportation station. Or stoned, in case they ran out of trees. It was a complicated argument.
Hippie, I’m so sorry. In retrospect, my comment about the guns she had seems really snippy, although I didn’t intend it that way. With all the people commenting, it probably also seemed like we were doing some variant of the Social Justice Pile-On, which is a practice I really don’t like.
At any rate, I’ve posted tons of things I regret on Hot Topics and related threads. You’re not alone. I hope that you come back soon; you seem like an awfully nice and clever person.
Agent Hippie, I thought then (and do now) that you had interesting points to add to the discussion. It’s fine for people to disagree and have conversations about sensitive issues, and I think our MuseBlog community is wonderful at that. I’m sorry that you don’t feel comfortable, though! I hope you’ll come back soon – you’re a fun person to have on the ‘blog.
Performed with the early music consort for a church service this morning.
Now having a bad case of the lazy Sunday afternoon, but with lots of work to do. There’s an awful lot of nope all up in here.
…Okay, seriously, self? You have this much homework, and you do none of it yesterday but instead stay up past one in the morning watching Beauty and the Beast* frame by frame? This is getting ridiculous. Obsessiveness is fun, but you can’t afford that level of it at a time like this. You just can’t.
*The Disney movie, not Cocteau’s movie or the TV show and unfortunately not the Broadway musical, since as far as I know, there isn’t a recording of the entire thing, except as performed by high schools, and although high school productions can be good, I haven’t seen one of this musical that’s worth watching frame by individual caking frame.
LOL! on my computer it shows related searches for “Museblog” and the related searches i found are not suprising:
Amateur Telescopes
Birthday Quotes
Star Gazing
Sky Charts
Greeting Cards
Pie Recipe
and New Recipes
………………………………………………………..
also im making a LEGO video series called “Guardians Of The Phoenix”
it’s about two Explorers who get trapped while exploring an ancient Egyptian cave. and they teleport back in time to when something they found written on a tablet really happened!
any ideas or helpful beginner’s-tips?
OFFICIAL MUSELOVER REVIEW OF THE HOBBIT
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
So yeah. That was pretty good. Not as good as its predecessors (oh heavens no) but certainly better than it could have been.
THINGS I LIKED:
– Martin Freeman. Oh goodness Martin Freeman.
– The handling of the Rivendell visit. Better than I expected.
– The riddle game and Andy Serkis’s return to playing Gollum.
– Howard Shore’s score.
– The final shot. It actually made you excited for the next movie.
THINGS I DISLIKED:
– A few pacing issues.
– The Pale Orc Antagonist Guy. Seriously, I nicknamed him the Harbinger of Peter Jackson’s Overindulgence halfway through the movie.
– Radagast. His subplot didn’t really add all that much to the movie.
– The CGI occasionally seemed a bit outdated.
BOTTOM LINE:
I suppose it’s unfair to fault Peter Jackson for making a good film when we expected a great one. That said, at its best, The Hobbit is excellent, and at its worst it’s mediocre. I’m eagerly awaiting The Desolation of Smaug (CUMBERBATCHCUMBERBATCHCUMBERBATCH).
ALSO:
Beautiful Creatures is the most unintentionally funny movie trailer I’ve seen in a long time. And is that Ellen McLain in Pacific Rim???
Could we have a thread for Hobbit discussion, please? I’d like to post my review too, but it might be hard for people to read through the Random Thread without encountering spoilers.
How about Movies, v. 2012?
Ah, thanks!
Sometimes it’s really nice to be reminded that you’re good at something. Even if that something is being able to date which decade of the 18th century a garment or piece of art is by its style.
It’s a decent skill to have, I guess.
Good for museum jobs working with clothes from that era.
Sorting out ski rentals – over the phone and in French – is majorly stressful. Especially when your father then demands you trouble them again by calling them back asking for an individual breakdown of prices. Numbers spoken quickly are not the easiest to understand, believe me.
I stepped on my glasses coming out of the shower this morning and the right ear-handle-bit snapped off. The optician said that there’s no way to fix it because the metal hinge-connector is bent, so I’m wearing my spare pair, which are almost exactly the same except for having transparent red frames that look like they’re made of cranberry juice and thus are far more attention-grabbing than I’m used to.
But I’m lucky to have a spare, and it’s only for a few days, so I won’t complain.
im building my own electronic, solar-powered robot! i got the kit for an early Christmas present. will tell you when im done!
(P.S. i think i will make the dog because i have a choice of either a dog or boat and the dog looked cool so i will post more later)
Robot Finished! will send photos later!
sorry i never sent photos. i took the robot apart after i took the pictures and the pictures never got uploaded into the computer and then were deleeted off of the camera accedentally
Because I’m sure everyone else in the throes of finals week can use a bit of hilarity, here is something that amused me…
On my phone, which is presumably not adapted to my preferences like the Chrome browser on my laptop is, Google’s top suggestions for “First Person To…” are as follows:
1- First person to climb Mount Everest.
2- First person to discover America.
3- First person to summit Everest.
4- First person to fly.
5- First person to sail around the world.
6- First person to break sound barrier.
7- First person to land on the moon.
8- First person to walk on the moon.
9- First person to fly around the world.
10- First person to milk a cow.
It’s interesting how many of these you have to qualify further in order to give a straight answer…
PACKING HNNNNNNNGGGGGG
I need to do laundry and suchlike bah what is liiiiiife
I FEEL SO UNPREPARED STILL BAH
This is R&R related, but I’d like to tap the entire ‘blogmind: how many ways can you think of for people to spend time together long-distance? For example, watching a movie or playing multiplayer online chess. My boyfriend and I are trying to brainstorm things we can do together over break, and you guys are all experts on long-distance friendships!
Drawing by description- draw a picture and talk your friend through the process of reproducing it, but don’t let him see any photos of it. At the end, send him a picture and see how close he got. (This works better with patterns and simple, generic pictures that don’t depend on interpretation– “Draw a circle, and then a square to the left of it, with the sides touching.”, not “Draw Harry Potter flying on a broomstick.”, although it could also be fun to see how differently you both interpret a prompt like that.)
Looking at the moon at the same time- I do this with my mom and Dad a lot, it helps me feel close to them even though I’m away at college. If you want, exchange photos of how the moon looks outside your windows, complete with scenery.
Write a round-robin story or script- One person starts, the other takes over, then the first person picks up where he left off, and so on.
If you can both get to a mountain with a cell tower at the top (and it’s a reasonable hike), agree to hike to the top of your respective mountains and be at the summits at the same time, and, using a phone/map/GPS if you have one, try to face in the exact direction of the other person, and then call them. (Take pictures in that direction from the top, too.) If you can stay on the line, have a semi-picnic together and describe the view!
(I did that with a friend once or twice. Actually, the farther away you are, the more fun it is, because you can try to factor in the Earth’s curved surface and figure out an angle where there’s a straight line between you and them.)
Also, if you have friends to conspire with in the other person’s area, you can ask them to leave clues and then send the other person on a scavenger hunt.
Thanks, both of you! Very original, interesting ideas!
Good evening from the lovely city of Geneva, Switzerland!
When checking in my suitcase somehow ended up being 4 kg over (despite having got it down to 20 on my aunt’s scales before I left – really funny how apparently airport scales don’t match up) but that was resolved by cleverly disguising a whole load of things as duty-free shopping in a WHSmith bag. Long story, but I avoided paying 44 quid.
Dinner tonight was extremely filling but absolutely delicious – fondue and rösti. Ahh, I can’t wait for the mountains.
See the LHC if you can!
We are indeed going to CERN, on Friday!
Gah that’s amazing! I hope you have a lovely time.
*envy* Have a great time there!
Yay! Have fun!
Lovely! I like it when some sort of miniscule destruction takes place, and the world is buzzing about it. Have fun!
There’s a picture of the new TARDIS console.
It looks a lot like the classic one, which is great! It’s also very gray and bleak. This is not the Raggedy Doctor anymore. Excellent work, design team!
We finally had our first real snow! I think the blizzard warning was probably an overstatement–only six inches or so with 40 m.p.h. wind gusts–but it was still enough for school to be cancelled. My mom, being a teacher’s aide, was quite happy about that. My dad recently bought a new snowblower off Craigslist, with three or four more horsepower, two inches wider, and thirty years newer than our old one, so he’s been itching to try it out. Meanwhile I get to scoop the dog a path in the backyard.
Winter, beautiful winter, glorious winter! How long have I waited for thee!
Apparently, the state of Iowa decided that it didn’t *really* want Cornell kids to make it home for the Christmas holiday and the best way to accomplish this was to blizzard for two days straight at the very end of block, effectively stopping EVERY SINGLE FLIGHT departing from or arriving at the Cedar Rapids Airport. Ditto the shuttle service, because roads have gotten so bad in the last two hours that driving into CR proper is nearly impossible.
…
So basically I’m stranded in a teensy airport for the apocalypse. Woo.
It’s not the apocalypse, and feel free to take your anger out by ranting at doomsday believers who think it is.
It is the eastern Iowa travel apocalypse at least. EVERYTHING stopped. But, anyway, Cornell reopened their res halls because so many people were stranded so I’m back at home now.
FINALS: DONE
COMPUTER: REPAIRED AND RETURNED AND I DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT
EVOLUTION FINAL PAPER: WAS ALL ABOUT DRAGONS AND IS TURNED IN
TODAY IS A GOOD DAY NOW
Agh, finals. Five down, two to go. My head feels like it’s been dragged along a gravel road.
Good luck, and remember to eat before going into finals that take place during your usual lunch or dinner hours. I made the mistake of not doing so yesterday, and my body was NOT happy.
Yes, halfway through my Precalc final I began trying to fight the urge to sneakily grab the carrots out of my bag…
I don’t know if it was stress-related or hunger-related or what, but the top student in my grade fainted during our Precalc final. So that was… eventful.
Finals are over, and I’m at my aunt’s house. I was up late last night writing something for my Dad, so I’m a little sleep-deprived and my stomach is being troublesome, but I have all of tomorrow to catch up on my sleep and read for fun.
HELLO FRIENDS GUESS WHO I SAW TODAY! YOU WON’T GUESS I’LL JUST TELL YOU: VENDAVAL!
i’m on the east coast visiting a friend and we went in to NYC today so WE GOT TO HAVE A MINI-KOKON we went to the american museum of natural history (I GOT THERE LATE SO WE ONLY HAD LIKE NA HOUR BUT IT WAS REALLY FUN) and then we had dinner
I am a dope and didn’t remember to take a picture of both of us but IT HAPPENED! vendy is rly tall in comparison to me but i am also short and uh NYC WAS GREAT EVERYTHING WAS GREAT THANKS MUSEBLOG
AHH YOU LUCKY PEOPLE
aww man glad you had fun :3
JADE I HAD A DREAM I MET YOU AND FERN TOO
SOMEDAY MY LOVE
AHHHHH YOU ARE ON THE EAST COAST! AND I’M ABOUT TO NOT BE ON THE EAST COAST WHYYYYYYY ARE OUR LIVES SO INCONVENIENT?!?!?!
Haha, Vendy is super tall. I agree. And also awesome. :3
I LOVE YOU!
I was in NYC the day before.
I can get there pretty much whenever I want to.
And I’m still kokonless.
So yeah. If you’re in the area again I’d be happy to join in.
I’m glad you had good times though!
Good morning. I see we survived the apocalypse.
“The Ides of March are come.”
“Ay, Caesar, but not gone.”
We’ve got several more hours of its being December 21 somewhere. But I’m not worried.
I slept through the solstice and everything seems to be okay here in MA so far. What I’m really worried about is doomsday believers hurting themselves or others, like with Heaven’s Gate or the Japanese millennium cult in the 90s with their poison gas attack.
CERN visit today was really interesting. A tiny part of me wants to work there when I’m older but at this stage it’s probably not the career I’ll be best suited for. We went around on a guided tour by one of the physicists working there, and saw a few short films. Although unfortunately we didn’t get to go underground to see any of the LHC itself, we did see (from the outside) the control room of one of the detectors, Atlas.
That detector, if it were a camera, would be 100 megapixels and take 40 million pictures per second. Out of all those there are maybe 100 Higgs Boson particles a year. Because they can’t analyse all of that data, they filter the information to keep what’s hopefully the most interesting, which still amounts to a yearly amount of data that could only be stored in a stack of CDs 7 kilometres high.
In September next year they’ll have tours where you can actually go underground and see the collider, since everything will be fully shut down.
The thing I liked most? Well, we could see all the screens in the control room, but they’ve started shutting down until next year and on one screen it said ‘Shutdown: No Beam’ and underneath a short blurb about when they would next re-open, etc.
The last line on there read ‘So long and thanks for all the fish.’ I think you’ll all understand why I found that so great.
They probably employ non-physicists, too, albeit in limited numbers. They probably have a communications department or the like, where journalism majors, educators, graphic designers and website creators are needed to communicate their work to the public. (Like the NASA Office of Communications at Headquarters.) They may also have a history department, where the history of their organization is cataloged and analysed (interviewing older researchers, indexing old PR documents, etc.)
Today I carried my towel around school in preparation for the apocalypse. Unfortunately, no one asked about it.
I knew where my towel was, too! High five!
Adaptation of my “LHC” song from 2008:
Today the Earth was not destroyed
Bet all the nuts are so annoyed
And now it’s unemployed they’ll beeeeee
Hip, hip, hooray, two-oh-one-threeeeee!
TODAY
IS JUST ANOTHER RANDOM DAY.
NO END OF THE WORLD OR ANYTHING.
( Whenever I picture the Mayan apocalypse, I picture someone working on the Long Count, then taking a lunch break, thus forgetting about ens project.)
back home
long day
whhrrrrrrr too many emotions let me drown them out with video games
It’s(the 22nd in my time zone, 21st MB time) my 4-year blogiversary. I’m glad it falls on the summer solstice – I like the symbolism of my being full of life that day.
Guess who came out to all but one of her offline friends? It went pretty well. I had a picnic with 4 of them, and worked up the nerve to say it there. I was even spared starting it as an announcement: someone had mentioned a guy on a reality show, who was gay and planning to marry his boyfriend in another country, so I could use the Auistralian same-sex marriage conversation to say I hoped it was possible in a decade or so when I’d want to marry, so J asked whether I was gay or bi (she pretty much knew anyway, probably thanks to my letting myself hint at it this year)… I had to clarify I’d intended to come out then, but it worked pretty well. Then I contacted everyone I could online the next day, announced it to all of them and said I thought I had their acceptance already, but it was nice to hear it, and got it. Warm fuzzies! (There will probably be a little awkwardness in some future situations, but I’ll take it and try to improve things.) The rest of the conversation at the picnic was also awesomely fulfilling
Wow, that was a longer paragraph than anticipated. It wasn’t even that dramatic a story! I intend to come out to G when I next talk to her, and want to call her soon if I can work up the nerve, because I also simply want to catch up and be a good friend.
I finished my Christmas shopping this week – buying my mum’s present. *relief* It’s hopefully going to be useful to her. There is a dubious benefit to seeing no one I know but my parents over this period.
I’ve done stuff, and the other stuff is more manageable now.
I have a shiny new copy of a Richard Feynman book, borrowed from my dad. Oh yes. Fun times!
Happy blogiversary!
Thank you!
Agent Hippie–
I’ve been procrastinating on responding to this. I really have. Sorry.
But your opinions will always be welcome on the Hot Topics thread. MuseBlog is not one solid wall of united political opinion, with you being the awkward outlier. We all have very different opinions on a variety of topics.
Whenever you feel ready, please come back.
On a completely different note: Two weeks to all-district auditions and WAAAHHH I SOUND AWFUL.
Time to go practice.
I got a sonic screwdriver for Channukah (Ten’s, in case you were wondering). So yesterday I took it with me to school and carried it around all day. Any time someone asked why I’d brought it, I said “Well, the world hasn’t ended YET so The Doctor probably doesn’t need my help, but just in case…”
I’m fully ready for two weeks of hard skiing beginning tomorrow. (We crossed over into the French Alps this afternoon from Geneva.) Just being in the snow has made me feel a tiny bit better and more removed from the complexities of life – though not yet perfect, so may the detox continue.
NA-NA-NASA Johnson Style…
Oh, NASA. So late to catch up with the meme. Still, nobody else has actual space engineers in THEIR Gangnam Style parody.
It’s the only version I’ve been able to watch all the way through. Clayton Anderson’s part is hilarious.
You rock!
HONEY(S), I’M HO-OMEEEEE.
But actually, finally home. Real home, with a comfortable un-lofted bed and a shower that has actual water pressure. And also back on the blog, because I’m no longer drowning under the weight of college studies. An abundance of holiday felicitations to you all!
Welcome back! Water pressure is nice.
It’s a luxury I never knew I would miss.
My mom’s reading Harry Potter and watching the movies, because she never has before. I watched the second movie today with her, and just a couple of things:
In Transfiguration when Ron halfway turns Scabbers into a goblet… I laughed because I’m sure Wormtail is going through some traumatic experience there.
When Harry says to Dobby “Don’t ever try to save my life again.” ALL THE FEELS both when I read it in the book and the movie! DOBBY I LOVE YOU
I’ve been here now for 5 years plus about a month.
That’s almost a third of my life.
And when I turn 21 it will have been over half of my life.
My goodness.
Tomorrow I’m getting on a plane and arriving in England the next day and having cheese for Christmas with Paul. It’s going to be fantastic.
It’s been fun being the indulgent big cousin, but I’m ready to not be on kiddie patrol, as adorable as they are.
Christmas is going to be very exciting this year.
cheese + hyper people + more cheese + jet lag + EHRMEHGERD ENGLAND = exciting
Have lots of fun!!!
HOW IS ENGLAND?!
(Hey GAPAs, I’ve sent a card to your gmail address! Could you post it when you have time please?)
Now for an actual post… No particular life updates. I’ll have some things to say about my Doctor Who watching, physics fangirling, Christmas celebrations, and maybe some random things, but tomorrow.
Merry Christmas!
And apologies for my absence for the past week. I was delivering a barrel organ to Barcelona. As one does.
At first I read this as “organ barrel” and got some very worrying mental pictures.
More fun than a barrel of organs?
You know, after Finals Week, sitting on my grandma’s couch eating toast and reading “The Long, Lonely Leap” while bonding with my mom and having the radio on playing carols is the best way to spend Christmas Eve.
It’s Christmas! You know what that means? Time to fully re-discover the soporific effects of playing the same game(s) on a backlit screen for extended periods of time!
This semester, I have a 4.0 GPA for the first time.
EVER.
EVER EVER.
AND I GOT A 95 ON MY ENGLISH ESSAY TOO.
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Congrats, Muselover! You must have worked hard!
GUYS
IT ACTUALLY SNOWED HERE
only a few inches but it’s something
WHITE CHRISTMAS HERE I COME
GO FORTH AND FROLIC
December 24, 8 pm Pacific time. First shot on one of my fellow bloggers, tuning the organ that hasn’t been played in a year.
It snowed! White Christmas!
Yay! It’s not a lot but enough to count.
Merry 25th, everyone! In return for you guys being so helpful and funny, I decided to give everybloggy a fact.
********
Ivan the Terrible used to feel so guilty, at night, he would go to the chapel and headdesk on the solid stone floor. He had a huge callus on his forehead because of this.
********
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Happy Christmas from the mountains! xxx
Merry Christmas!
I received full-length fingerless gloves (with optional mitten-ness), a Firefly box set, a Matrix box set, candied ginger, an awesome button-down flannel shirt, two pairs of flannel sleepy-pants-pajama-things, and some cast.
flannel flannel flannel flannel ginger ginger firefly gloves
Love you guys. Enjoy the snow, if you happen to be in an area with any.
Hello all!
Dinner is cookin, a fire is going in the grate, and PB&J and I are abuot to have a concertina party!
Merry Christmas, Museblog. ♥
Merry Christmas, Fiddler and Paul!
In which Fern can’t type on keyboards that aren’t her’s. Sorry about the typos.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, happy generic winter holiday to others!
My sister got me an inflatable dinosaur for Christmas! I have yet to inflate it, but the day is young. Also I received some pretty great presents in my fanfiction gift exchange!
My parents mostly got me things that can’t be left under the tree, like the promise of bedroom furniture when I move into an apartment near school in January, or like the car I’ve been using since May. I’m not complaining, though!
I am grateful for my family and my friends (including you all), today and always.
My tea samples arrived yesterday, so I noticed them today. Tea for Christmas!
I found some binder clips in my stocking, just like I thought I would, haha. They’re very pretty and I love them. Also got some gorgeous pens and mechanical pencil sets and miscellaneous pieces of clothing.
Happy Holidays, everyone, love you all~
Woo, Christmas! My family and I are on our way to the movie theater as I type, so I can’t say much. But I think the two things I was most excited to receive were the handmade Jake the Dog backpack and the waterproof iPod shuffle.
Merry Chrismas/holidays and a happy New Year, Museblog!
Merry Christmas! (Even if you don’t celebrate it, I still want you to be merry today, just like I would any other day–so you can take it as a general “Good afternoon” if you prefer, but it all comes down to the same thing to me).
I have a laptop now! And more money to save for Earthwatch! And a book! And a 30-dollar gift card to Books-A-Million! I’m getting a field guide to dragonflies and one to anurans; the latter comes with audio for identifying calls! I’m excited, because I want to participate in some citizen science projects that involve photographing and identifying dragonflies and amphibians. The amphibian one is just for my state, but the dragonfly one is called Dragonfly Pond Watch, and you can do it from anywhere the species being monitored live at any time of year, if anyone here is interested.
And I’m going to see Les Mis today!
Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and if you don’t, then I hope you have a joyous day anyway!
Today has been really great so far. I received a new coat and a snazzy pair of boots, and some posters to frame and hang on my wall when I redecorate my room, as well as a digital photo frame and a scrapbook to hold all the things I have on my wall right now. I’m redecorating my room because right now it’s pink and has about eight thousand pieces of paper/drawings/certificates/Muse covers/etc. And I’m taking everything down. It’s kind of scary. The two posters are both from Odd Quartet, and if you like music you should go look at their store: there’s a “wibbly wobbly timey wimey” time signature poster and their “Should you be practicing right now” poster has found its way into basically every band room ever. Also, I have a t-shirt that says “Practice” on a music staff in between repeat bars. In addition I got a photo print of my marching band doing the traditional ____ Band Day photo shoot on the Stands of Death. Also, my mom knitted me a hat and fingerless gloves. Yay!
But my favorite gift was the one that was given to my sister. She is a beginning trombone player and has been interested in playing tuba for a long time. My mom and the band director are conspiring to get her a tuba to practice at home and today she got the mouthpiece. She squeed so hard. It was amazing to watch her unwrap it. She’s been carrying it around all day and buzzing it and we’re all so excited because she’s going to play the tuba.
Merry Christmas, you guys.
I just watched The Adventures of Tintin with my cousins… Really great, a good, I loved all of the little references to the books, but I was bummed that they cut off right at the end of “The Secret of the Unicorn”… I hoped we’d have a little of “Red Rackham’s Treasure” so we could meet Professor Calculus.
Oh well, that’s what sequels are for…
Merry Christmas!
I went to see Les Mis.
It was incredible.
Also, I get to talk to my friends and I am in possession of a Disappearing TARDIS mug! My mom also acquired a Yiddish Proverbs mug and a Shakespearean Insults mug for the family. She also bought a tin of “Anti-Establish Mints,” which are French Revolution-themed and rather excellent. And I have some lovely stylish socks, with stripes and snow flurries.
Merry Christmas!
what presents did you guys get
i got:
a Diary (the cover is FUZZY!)
one of those new annoying Furby things
an AWESOME subscription to Muse magazine
blankets and a pillow
3 tie- die shirt making kits
a few notebooks and sketchpads
Metalic markers
Sparkly markers
Crochet kit
a necklace
an AWESOME hand painted egg with Legend Of Zelda character on it (SQUEE)
and a few more things i forget
Merry Christmas! (Joyous Tuesday, if Christmas isn’t your thing.)
Since others are sharing, I got: a bag of English Breakfast; a pretty orange mug; The Annotated Alice; a notebook and pen; two necklaces; Gaudy Night and Busman’s Honeymoon; an Amazon gift certificate; a TARDIS poster; and some nice smelling soap.
also, I ate duck and watched Doctor Who, and tomorrow I’m leaving for the beach. a good Christmas.
We seem to be sharing Christmas gifts, so here’s a rundown of what I was given:
-a set of Sony MDR-V6 headphones
-a good pair of work pants
-a nice shirt
-two neckties, one of which has a subtle Pinkie Pie pattern
-a jacket
-a gift card to a local coffee roaster
-a gift card to Cabela’s
-the Félix Torres Amat translation of the Bible
-sundries and miscellany
I didn’t get any socks. I’m disappointed. I need some socks.
Has a Nook, B&N gift cards, and an upcoming day of extended travel/time on planes. BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS, GO.
If you haven’t read John Green, get some of his books. If you have, get some of his books anyway.
Um, other than that there’s “The True Meaning of Smekday” by Adam Rex, anything by Mary Roach (my favorite is “Packing For Mars,” but “Stiff” is also very good), the Percy Jackson series (both of them), the Red Pyramid series, anything by Eva Ibbotson if you’re in the mood to melt from emotion overload…
Haruki Murakami writes some dang good novels, magical realism type stuff.
Went to see Les Miserables today! It. Was. Amazing. There aren’t enough words. As soon as I walked out of the theater, I wanted to turn around and go watch it again. I’m going to go with my cousins later this week, however, and my friends soon-ish, and the boyfriend once I get back to school, so I should get my chance!
*Jumps up and down with excitement.*
I just got back from spending three days at my stepmother’s parents’ house (My stepmother’s family gets together for every holiday). I’ve always had a hard time sleeping in the guest room I always use there because the clock in it ticks so loudly (they’re big on clocks, especially pendulum clocks, though that one was just a standard wall clock). This time, though, I was daydreaming and I remembered “The Girl in the Fireplace”, the Doctor Who episode. The clock sounds exactly like the clockwork monsters in it!
Also, these people are pretty religious, and it was Christmas. So their house was full to bursting with little angle statues. Not to mention the Christmas tree.
Heheh, superstition. (For the record, I wasn’t nervous or anything. I just kept noticing everything.)
SFTDP. That should say “angel statues” not “angle statues”. Sorry.
Ooh, I just saw that episode. That’s really neat.
I’m currently loading to watch the Downton Christmas special – it aired yesterday, so I’ve got to catch up!
Since everyone’s posting what gifts they’ve received, here are some of mine: a pair of very cool owl earrings, a fluffy fleece/jacket, a colourful mug, new boots (got those early), Great Expectations, three Sherlock Holmes stories in audiobook form, a new map of the world for my wall, and a pen – though it won’t replace my trusted Parker fountain!
I just saw Les Mis…everything was so freaking perfect. Oh. My. God. And Marius was just the best and I don’t even care that they changed the songs because…argh. So many emotions.
ONE DAY MORRRRRRE
Yes. I mean, sometimes I wished they’d kept it the same (Why did they have to leave out, “You robbed a house!” “I broke a window pane!”?), but sometimes I was delighted with what they did (like the stuff that was added between Javert telling Madeleine he reminded him of Valjean and telling Madeleine Valjean had been found–it made it more like the original Hugo novel, in a good way, and that made me happy). And sometimes it was just “I’m not really sure why they did that, but it doesn’t really affect the quality at all,” like when they changed “winter” to “plague” in “At the End of the Day.”
And yes, everyone in Friends of the ABC was amazing.
ENJOLRAS. Oh gosh. He was just fantastic–all during Red, Black he was glancing at Marius and then when they finally get to the barricade and he’s like…rest it was so perfect.
Suddenly, a wild monsterpost appears!
Christmas Eve- We had Christmas dinner. We had planned to go to one of our town’s churches’ Christmas carol services as we usually do(we basically just pick whatever church has the best time, preferably not one we went to last year), but didn’t want to go out in the thunderstorm. Luckily I have a laptop so carried on using that. Among other things, I talked to some offline friends… online. I love my friends. You included, of course.
Christmas day- We didn’t go to much effort with presents this year, which was fine. I’ll probably get more stuff anyway, from my aunt when she visits for New Year. We drove to a national park, did some short bushwalks, and had lunch in a (remarkably new-looking and clean) shelter because it drizzled. We saw fantails, and heard some gorgeous but unidentifiable (to us…) bird calls. We even saw an echidna crossing the road! It went downhill a bit when my parents argued on the drive home. I slept in the car and woke up with that unreal feeling, probably made worse by not having blankets as I’m used to. Getting home and doing things, including eating cookies and chocolate, solved that. Although excessive food intake and attempts at avoiding it created other problems…
At home I had an hour or two free and alone, so I continued reading QED by Richard Feynman. It’s what Sheldon would do! I haven’t quite finished it, because absorbing that much information in a short period makes me anxious. but it is fascinating. Especially after our term or so spent on the wave nature of light in physics class. If you have an interest in the topic, which a lot of you geeks do, and enough background knowledge(it’s supposed to be readable by the general public, as much as quantum physics can make sense), I definitely recommend it.
I watched 8 episodes of Doctor Who in 3 days, finishing season 6 and starting 7, so I could watch the Christmas special when it aired here on Boxing Day. I don’t like most of it that much, but I’ll keep watching season 7 now. Adventures!
We’ve actually booked an appointment to get my learner license! I’d like to get my P1’s before college, and if this goes as planned I’ll still be able to.
…You saw an echidna.
You saw an echidna. Crossing the road.
I WANT TO MOVE TO AUSTRALIA NOWIn other words… congratulations. /envy/
Hm. Why did the echidna cross the road?
I don’t know, why did the echidna cross the road?
Echidna tell you, either.
[Say it fast, with a Scottish or Cockney accent.]
It noticed us, too. We stopped and watched for a minute when we came up to it, then left it alone. I hadn’t seen one curl into a ball before in real life!
Now that I think of it, you’d probably love to see a lot of Australia’s wildlife.
I WILL LURE YOU HERE. I have plansss…After a few days of sunshine and unusually warm weather, it’s started snowing quite heavily. Unfortunately this makes for reduced visibility on the pistes, and on top of that, goggles get frosted over every ten seconds. However, it also means lovely fresh powder snow, so once it clears up a bit (hopefully soon) it should be much better skiing!
Home after a great holiday with my mom’s family in Worcester! My parents couldn’t fit my gifts in their suitcases, so I got them today:
– SpaceX “2012: Year of the Dragon” t-shirt
– Mars Curiosity rover Hot Wheels model
– Silver Linings: My Life Before and After Challenger 7 by June Scobee Rodgers
– The Holloman Story by George F. Meeter
– Come Up and Get Me by Joseph Kittinger and Craig Ryan
– The Long, Lonely Leap by Joseph Kittinger and Martin Caidin (Rented from the library because it goes for $500 dollars on Amazon, but it’s still mine to read for now.)
Still waiting for in the mail:
– Traveler’s necklace from Etsy with pieces of maps inside glass charms
– The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space by Craig Ryan
(Yeah, I kind of indulged my new interest in high-altitude ballooning this year…)
Has someone told you recently that you have really cool taste?
Well, now somebody has, that somebody being you.
I’ve decided to use the book I’m writing as leverage to keep in contact with Sage once the semester is over. I’ll mention that it won’t be done by the end of the semester, but I can email the chapters to him so that he can still read it since we’ve already exchanged email addresses for a class project. I figure if he’s OK with that he won’t mind the occasional friendly chat. And he should be fine with it, considering how eager he was to read about his own death – which I conveniently haven’t gotten to in the story yet.
We’ll call you Scheherazade101.
(Though hopefully my book won’t be that long…)
Speaking of which, has anyone here read Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade [not sure whether that’s how he spelled it]”? It’s hilarious and has lots of great factoids.
I must read this now…
Aaaah. My room.
It used to be filled with a lot of posters and pictures on the walls and things.
And there was this huge shelf filled with all these little ceramic things I made at the pottery studio in seventh grade.
And there was a row of hooks for hanging things on like scarves and jewelry and my band hoodie.
Aaaand it’s all gone.
I’m completely redecorating my room. It’s really scary. I think I have a paint color picked out and I have this really awesome quilt I’m going to put on my bed.
And All-District auditions are coming up! Joy.
We’re having a grand time. Paul and I are frighteningly similar in far too many ways for either of us to be comfortable with it.
Yesterday we poked around a moated manor house and spent about 15 minutes very seriously contemplating and discussing the oddities in a painted glass piece. The clothing of some of the people in the scene were 100 years out of date with the rest of them. The tour guide nearby got an amusing earful. “Wait, will you look at that?” “Oh, that is odd….” “Well, when’s that then?” “Nah, it’s later but not that much, look at the sleeves. It’s after the 1720’s, but the cut is too straight for anything too far after the 60’s…”
I don’t think she expected a small American to be able to date men’s fashions that precisely. Or anyone to even notice anything peculiar about it in the first place.
Today we spent in Wales at Conwy castle, then visited a Tudor house (with the most fantastic kitchen), and then had chips with curry by the seaside and went slogging on the beach of the Irish sea and poked our heads over the edge of a bronze age copper mine.
In short, a successfl first two days on this side of the puddle.
More updates as events warrant.
…This sounds like so much fun.
Sounds like you’re both having a blast!
Seems like you’re having such fun! How’s the weather holding up over there? (And if you ever get the chance to be down near South Buckinghamshire, do let me know.)
I was going to ask where you are, I’ve been thinking of you!
You’re not that far. D’you want to Kokon with us? Not sure when, but let’s ponder.
Do I! I’m back in England on the 8th of January but I’ll be at school, so a Kokon would have to be at the weekends and preferably not too far from school. Where would it be convenient for you to get to?
*frowns*
*questioning look*
We could plan off-blog? Do you want to arrange parental consent and such?
We don’t need parental consent, but please don’t plan rendezvous on the blog.
Wouldn’t Selenium need parental consent? She’s not 18 yet.
Anyway, Fiddler, I think you could send the GAPAs an e-mail and arrange it the ordinary way except you sending the e-mail instead of your parents, couldn’t you?
I’ve no other mode of communication, my profoundest apologies for causing a kerfuffle.
I repeat my previous suggestion. Do you not have an email address? They’re easy to create.
Thanks, Bibliophile. The problem is being worked out.
Sorry! I wasn’t intending to plan it all here. I’ll be more careful in the future.
Jealousy! That sounds so cool.
dad said he ordered a Zelda game off of eBay for me, but it didn’t come yet. it’s suppoused to have come today but it didn’t
CAKE YOU MAILMAN!
CAN’T YOU CAKING TAKE CARE OF OUR MAIL!
I know from experience how frustrating that can be. *sympathy squids* It’s probably not the mailman’s fault, though. He might have received it late.
There seem to be quite a few old threads on the “Currently Popular” list…are there more spambots around than usual?
There is a Sigur Rós concert in Denver over spring break.
And I’ll be busy singing with my choir at Disneyland.
GRR TWO WONDERFUL THINGS GOING ON AT ONCE AND I CAN ONLY DO ONE
Last year, I read “Benjamin Franklinstein Lives!” and raved about how funny it was. I mentioned that the book included a preview of the sequel, featuring the Wright Brothers as vampires.
Yesterday I read that book, “Benjamin Franklinstein Meets the Fright Brothers”, and it was every bit as awesome as I expected.
SPOILER SPOILER SUPER BIG SPOILERS FOLLOW SPOILER SPOILER
No, they don’t sparkle, they ARE frightening antagonists, but they AREN’T actually evil (or really vampires, it turns out), they’re just being mind-controlled by… psychic undead Napoleon! And after they’re freed from his control, they promise to help the heroes, which is good, because there’s going to be another book… “Benjamin Franklinstein Meets Thomas Deadison”!
…
…I couldn’t help it. I was so curious about what everyone could possibly love so much about MLP:FIM that I had to look up the first episode and see what all the fuss was about, because I couldn’t understand it at all.
Oops.
I’m… about to start on the eleventh episode of season 2 now. Because this is seriously addicting. Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy are both just so identifiable. So is Princess Luna. And Discord is just awesome. And Pinkie Pie. And… you get the point.
I still haven’t managed to get over the fact that I actually like a show with a title like that, period. I mean, really.
And I still have homework.
Oops.
Sorry, but I forgot to add how delighted I was at the “Into the Woods” reference in “A Canterlot Wedding.”
I’m done now. Really.
But the Snow White parody alsoMay I be the first to say: welcome to the herd!
Welcome! *confetti cannon*
What was the Into the Woods reference in Canterlot Wedding? I didn’t catch that. Although the “At the Gala” song from season 1 is very reminiscent of ITW.
Oops, I got the episode wrong. It was… whatever episode that song was in. They were all going, “To find,” “to sell,” et cetera just like in ITW, and I was just wondering if it was a coincidence when they then sang, “Into the gala! (And it’s going to be the best night ever!),” so I figured it wasn’t.
Wow, you’re already almost as far as I am! I think I’m just over halfway through season 2. It’s my thing with my brother now; his original goal was to get me through season 2 by the end of Christmas break! It’s a really fun show to share with him.
The Flim Flam brothers’ song sounds suspiciously like a parody, but it’s definitely not of anything I’m familiar with. Does anyone have some insight here?
It’s a spoof of The Music Man, particularly the number “Ya Got Trouble” sung by the character Prof. Harold Hill as portrayed by Robert Preston in the 1962 film adaptation of the musical.
I’m reading Homestuck again.
It’s so much better the second time around because I actually know everyone’s name! At least the A universe trolls and humans.
I’ve gotten as far as Gamzee’s freakout. He still scares the cake out of me. I actually had a dream last night where he was the antagonist. I could hear the honking… *shudders*
Ooh, I’m reading Homestuck too! Or at least I think I am. It’s kind of confusing. I’m not very far along, though. I’m only up to the point where they just introduced Rose and she’s connecting Whatshisface… John, right?… to the game server. I’m confused though. Why is everything a video game and real life at the same time? When will they finally find a good system for the captchalouge sylladexing thingamabobby… please help…
I hear it only gets more confusing until it all makes perfect sense. I think Hussie cites the introduction of the trolls as that point for most people, there’s a very good interview between him and Brian Lee O’Malley.
Guys, if you want to maintain your sanity, don’t go to music school…
All I want is a real vacation where I don’t have to keep filling out forms and practicing 80 gazillion things for auditions and summer festivals and bljdakkjldasdljkfsjkdfa
Saw the Addams Family musical! No one is more fabulous than the dead Addams relatives. No one.
Also Wicked is coming to my city in the spring and I might see the Les Miserables movie this week.
I’m becoming a theatre kid send helpI leave in like
slightly over a day
WHHHRRRRRRRRRR
any last-minute packing advice
I will be living out of a suitcase, a duffle bag, and a backpack for 5ish months
I NEED HELP
Go through your day and make particular note of all the things you touch, and consider whether you will need them or if they’ll be there/available there.
Also YAY!!!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
Good advice!
Hi Jade!
If you’re not slightly uncomfortable with the amount of stuff you’re bringing (as in, you don’t think you have enough), then you have probably packed too much. You’ll be surprised at how little you can live with! It also depends on your program. If you’ll be in a dorm-like situation, you can probably afford to bring more than if you’ll be doing a lot of traveling. If you’re staying with a host family, they’ll probably have a lot of things for you, too, like sheets, towels, etc.
So soon! So exciting!
Thanks guys! Very helpful
leaving in less than 2 hours iufdsjkn
Bon voyage, Jadestone!
Have a fantastic time!
Okay, I just had what was possibly the second best day of my life.
Finding out that the copy of a song by Voltaire in my playlist on That Video-Sharing Site was hosted by a user called “bunnysparkle”.
In other news, my Twinnings tea still hasn’t arrived yet, and I fear that they may have run out of the particular teas I ordered before I placed my order, as I was a little late. *sighs* Oh well. It may not be an exciting new taste, but my dependable stash of golden chai is still delicious.