Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Music: Bis - Silver Spoon
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So You Say You Want A Resolution?

1) I will maintain at least one clear, uncluttered path from one end of my dorm room to the other
2) I will do my laundry at least once a week. No pair of pants should go through more than 5 days of continuous duty.
3) I will take the time to use all of my food up before buying more
4) I will not waste time with refreshing PvP over and over again waiting for Kurtz to upload the frigging comic. I know it's never up before 6:00 anyway.
5) I will take the time to make my hair look decent every day....unless I'm really out of it. Then I resolve to wear a hat.
6) I will get a better strap for my bell bracelet. I like listening to the pretty jinggling but I have to admit that a piece of white yarn will not last very long
7) I will complete the things I start, be they books, papers, or video games (I still have to finish one from 1999...)
8) I will keep track of who has borrowed my DVDs. It totally sucks having to track them down right before break.
9) I will have breakfast every morning
10) I will not bitch about my weight. I know I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I can't stand those people who whine and moan about their weight while stuffing Twinkies in their mouths. I know exactly why I'm a little heavy. I eat. I enjoy food. Therein lies the problem. I think that if I just stuck to three meals and maybe one snack I ought to do well.

::transmission ended::
This transmission logged byErisSaid on 6:37 PM

Music: Simple Plan - Grow Up
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I have just spent the entire day trying the give this blog a facelift. Using the old orange template that comes with blogger was fine, but I wanted to find something....unique.

Still getting used to it, though. I've been futzing with the fonts and sidebar all day and still haven't figured out how to change the font color of the actual entries.

I found one site with tons of skins. I didn't even know where to start. I really like this one, but it would have been cool to find something more...i don't know. Hard to describe exactly what you want when you have no ability to create what you want. I'd love to learn how to make these, but for now, I think this one is really cute.

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 4:18 PM

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Music: Radiohead - Paranoid Android
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So tonight is New Years Eve and I feel like a slug. I haven't really accomplished anything over the past few days. I'd like to help with some of the housework at the very least, but the one thing I might come close to doing right is laundry. Too bad our washer has a billion knobs and stuff on it so I might end up screwing everyone for clothes (my dad's not really a pink shirt person).

I'll do something today, though. I still need school supplies, so maybe I'll run down to Staples today and get those. First, though, I think I'll try and find people. The only thing that I know of that's going on tonight is a party starting at nine over at Kyra's. I don't know if A is going to be having anything at her house as well, but I'll try and put in a few appearences should there be multiple options.

I've also been paying alot of attention to my dear iPod. I've pretty much run out of my own CDs to burn, so I'm starting to think about dipping in to other people's collections. V leant me Hawksley Workman which was great, and I've only got Radiohead left of my own CD's to take care of. This in a situation where I still have over 8000 megs left to fill....mmmm...piracy...I mean "legal obtainment of copyrighted material"....yeah...

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 10:32 AM

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Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Music: Cake - Opera Singer
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It's no secret that I'm awful about updating my blog over breaks, but I figured I'd at least get a Christmas recap up.

I got home on the 17th, spending hours driving in a boring straight line listening to the sketchy clanging sounds under my car over the sound of music and obeying the dots. Anyone who has driven on route 80 ought to know the dots. It say to stay at least two dots back from the car in front of you and, by God, you do it. Without even meaning to, you become a willing minion of the dots.

But apart from that, the trip back was uninteresting. As were the first two days back. They consisted mostly of sleeping in and hanging out with the family. On the 19th, my dad and I went to see Return of the King together. No question, the best movie I've seen in a long long time. Amazing acting, amazing story, amazing length. It was so hard to come up with a single favorite part since it had just so many great moments.

I've also been spending time with friends of course. I also went to see RotK with a group of friends. I still feel kind of stupid that the young kid sitting in front of me was less scared of the Ringwraiths than I was (for the record, they really are creatures straight out of my nightmares).

And now, Christmas.

Christmas Eve had the neighbors over for a nice little dinner (especially little since my dad made it and it was less than 6 courses). After having some dinner with them I went over to Matty's house where I watched Finding Nemo with him and Giffen.

Christmas Day. For the first time in years we actually opened the gifts on Chistmas Day instead of Christmas Eve. I got a bunch of new CDs, DVD, and a couple of new games. Daddy also got me a fourth controler for the Gamecube ("I had noticed that system had four little connecter hole things but you only had three things to go in to them." Very nice, Daddy). Unfortunately, Amazon hadn't registered the order for the Super-Special-Omni Two Towers, so that was something we would just have to fix later. After gifts at home we went to my Aunt Jill's despite her having a really nasty case of the flu (I wanted to wear little SARS masks over there. At least show up in them. But oh no we didn't want to upset her....we never do what I want...). We're all really tired of going over there for ever holiday the way we have for the last 19 years, but this year wasn't so bad. Laura had gotten this new snowboarding game for Gamecube (which I later bought for myself and have been playing like mad ever since) and I brought over my copy of Mario Kart. I'm glad I actually had fun this year. But I still hope we can have Christmas somewhere else next year.

One the 26th, my father geeked out and set up his own LotR marathon. I brought down the extended Fellowship of the Ring and bought a copy of Two Towers over at Scotti's, he set up the DVD player in the falimly room and had his own happy little geek marathon on in the background while he cooked dinner for...

Saturday the 27th. Holy McFuck. Did we really need 5 appetizers, 2 main courses, and a whole bunch of desserts? No. No we didn't. But it was still great to have the "Aunts and Uncles that aren't" (friends of my mother that I've known all of my life) over for a visit.

Marie stayed over and the next day I got meet the very quiet but very nice John.

I've glossed over ass-loads of stuff, but I have to pee very very badly and must now go.

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 2:26 PM

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Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Music: Gorillaz - Latin Simone (Que pasa contigo?)
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(Yes, the "Music" track can change after only a couple of minutes. The track on the iPod changed, okay?)

I now present....My Opinion Matters! (Volume 1): my truths, and they matter
- If you leave your dishes in the sink for so long that they fill the entire thing and I can't properly clean mine, I have the right to empty my leftover food in to your dishes. I don't care if the ramen stains your plate. You shouldn't have been a jackass and left it in the sink to fester for three days. Shut up.
- I don't know you. For all I know, you could be a serial rapist. I don't care how badly you have to pee. I'm not letting you in. Use the bush.
- It is perfectly acceptable to have a Care Bears pillow at the age of 19
- Temple of Doom did not suck. Yes. It was the least awesome of the Indiana Jones movie, but that still makes it better than most of what Hollywood is churning out today.
- Strider is hot. You can keep your pretty little elf boy.
- We must clone Johnny Depp. Everyone should look that good at 40.
- It's not a mess if you can still find stuff. Whenever I need something, I can find it within 3 minutes. Therefore, my room is not in that bad a state.
- I read Sailor Moon manga and watch the Anime. Bite me.
- Yes. That is a Tonberry wearing a leopard print coat and a pimp hat with a tiara on his head. Yes. I am comfortable with that. And so is he.
- I can quote Fight Club at least as well, if not better than you.
- If you cannot even get close to the wording of a quote that you want to use, DON'T BOTHER. You will only piss off people who know the exact wording.
- I am not an Indie Kid. I don't have the patience to check every CD to make sure it was not put out on a major label. I like weird music. If some of it qualifies as Indie, that's fine. But I'm not looking for it.

And I'm done...for now!

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 11:18 AM

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Music: The Stereophonics - Madame Helga
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Yep. I'm pretty screwed.

I tried to study for International Politics! I really did! It's just that every time I looked at the list of vocabulary, I kept thinking that I knew it already. I think I do, but still! Usually I'm good about studying, but I think I just want to go home so much that I can't really focus. As for those ten readings? I looked at the titles and decided on my own what they were talking about. All I can do at this point is re-read my notes, which I think will be better than trying to re-read this shitty book.

Stay tuned for another, less serious update right after this one.

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 11:04 AM

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Monday, December 15, 2003

Music: The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
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I'm never going to break my routine again.

Today was my Polirical Geography final. The way that one is run is he gives us a number of possible questions in advance, then we get the test and he has choen three of them. We pick two of the three and yay fun.

I prepare for these tests by writing outlines for all but one of the questions (there are usually 5, so I do four). This time he gave us six, but I always work my ass off and he picks like the first two and I feel like a tool. So this time I didn't do two of the six outlines.

We get the three questions...guess which two are on there. That's right I did a ton of the wrong work. Fuck me.

I think I did alright on the one that I didn't know (at least one of them I had outlined), but I can never be sure.

On a side note, I've been in a pretty foul mood all day. I have no idea why, either. I've been seeing friends. I've been trying not to overdo it with the work. But for some reason I've been snippy to everyone. I got an email from A earlier that I took kind of personally, which I wouldn't have done normally, and I think I was more snappish and less diplomatic in my reply than I should have been. I tried dressing cheerily to maybe improve my spirits, but that hasn't helped (although the two buns on the sides of my head have kept hair-in-face aggrevation to a minimum). I even have the angriness headache, which is something I don't think pills will help. Video games have not helped either, which is worrisome.

You know what? Fuck it. I'm usually the one that has to put on the happy face, so I'm taking the day off, eating an entire peperoni pizza and watch Fight Club. Grrrrr....

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 6:14 PM

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Sunday, December 14, 2003

Music: Kill Bill Soundtrack - Don't let me be misunderstood
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I would like to point out that it isn't even 11 am yet and already this day is crazy.

I woke up at about 9:30 (I have no idea why. I was up until 12:30). I went in to the kitchen to get some water for tea, and it was snowing! Please realize that I am a total two-year old when it comes to stuff like this, so I made a happy noise, forgot the tea and made some hot coco instead. I was just about to turn on the TV for some Indiana Jones goodness, when I heard something going down in the living room. Not caring that I looked like death on toast first thing in the morning, my coco and I went out to see what was up.

They caught Saddam Hussein.

What. The fuck.

I got there in the middle of somone's commentary, and MSNBC doesn't have the problem that CNN does where they replay a clip a bajillion (scientific term) times, so I had no idea what he was looking like, or where they had found him.

After a couple of minutes, they played the clip. Elena was right. It didn't look like him at all. He looked like an old man that they dragged out of a nursing home. But I guess living in an 8 foot deep hole for a long time'll do that to you.

At this point Linda left her room for the first time today. She comes in to the living room, we tell her Saddam was living in a hole and we caught him, and then she saw there was a whole bunch of snow on the ground.

In essence, we broke Linda.

But despite the fact that one of history's most brutal dictators has been caught, I'm gonna go on with my life. I know it means alot symbolically, and I'm sure it means the world to civilian Iraqi citizens, but I don't see it as changing much for the people I care about. I'm happy, I really am. And it makes me feel good that the fucker was living in a hole and had to be de-loused by troops. But I gotta tell ya, beyond that little inner Nelson laughing at the bastard...I can't see it meaning too much more.

Right then. Indiana Jones time

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 11:04 AM

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Saturday, December 13, 2003

Music: Rufus Wainwright - He ain't heavy...He's my brother
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One of the most horrifying realizations you can make is that people can hear you.

My mother does not realize this *ever* so she's fine making inappropriate comments in public at full voice. Me? I get embarrassed when I find out people can hear the stupid shit I do.

I think I listen to good music, but I don't feel like I should force it on the rest of the world, even if it is The Specials. I keep the volume on all of my stuff low, and sometimes I even just listen to my iPod through the headphones, making no noise whatsoever (this is more out of convenience than anything else since the iPod has over 1600 songs on it and my computer has something closer to 50).

But now I'm finding out that one the occasion that I *do* turn up the volume (bad day, being stupid and wearing a hat that covers my ears while indoors, trying to drown out Ali's music, etc.), it seems that people can hear it.

I got wall knocked last night.

This is especially weird considering that I have no neighbors of which to speak.

The guy in the TV room at midnight knocked on the wall for me to turn it down. This is not entirely my fault, though, since I had been turning my volume up to block the sounds of Extreme Elimination Challenge, and he turned his up to block Rufus Wainwright, so we got stuck in a cycle of crappiness.

But now I'm wondering...can the people upstairs hear me? Because I'll be the first to admit I'm a total spazz.

And...well...I really get in to my video games, and X-2 has been a real catalyst for some very colourful language and just general outbursts ("THAT WAS SUCH SHIT!!" and "Shit sucking son of a one eyed whore!" among others...I won't go in to the many disparaging remarks I made about the sexual escapades of one of the boss enemies' mother...)

Well now that it's 12:30, work can start (I refuse to begin working before noon. whatever I do comes out crappy anyway). I gotta do about 4 or 5 outlines for Political Geography. I'm doing well with the other classes (96 on the Spanish final and a thumbs up on my last Biogeography paper), but this is the one I really care about. It was far and away my favorite class of the semester. Kinda sad, though. This next semester is going to be the first one where I've picked my classes and haven't taken a class with Professor Mulligan. Tears. I'm very serious when I say that I would pick Geography up as a third major. At the very least a minor. I need to go over that with Stamos.

Bah! Enough procrastinating! Work now! (the sooner I do two of these outlines, the sooner I can get back to leveling up in X-2). But I am going to leave you with one of the best away messages I've ever seen:
"Today we salute you, Mr. Nudist Colony Activity Coordinator!
Wearing nothing but a whistle and a clipboard, you're living the real American dream: getting paid to think up fun things to
do, naked. Sure there's danger - vinyl chairs, sunburns, chaffage... and lawn darts? Completely out of the question. Your
keen instincts tell you to stick to activities that involve lots of bouncing and jiggling. And if that doesn't work, who
cares? You're all naked - because we all know, when the going gets tough, the tough get naked."

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 12:43 PM

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Thursday, December 11, 2003

Music: The Smiths - Hang the DJ
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The final is tomorrow at 9 and I can't seem to bring myself to care. I ought to be freaking out like most people...but instead I just played Smash Brothers with Hamilton and Matt for an hour.

I wonder why I don't tweek during finals. I do my studying, of course. I've been in the house all day and that blows. I looked over absolutely everything I could...and then I played some X-2. Then I went back to studying...while talking to Marie. After that I ran over what I would say for one question...and then went off with the guys.

I would call it slacking, but I can smartly define all of the really vital terms and understand all of the possible questions that he sent us.

I guess I'm just done ::shrug::

It feels odd to say that I'm done studying. Try that at home during high school and that's sure to get some looks, but here I can't help but realize that anything else that I do won't give me any more of an edge. It's open book for God's sake. And he's not a hard grader. I *am,* however, worried about my Political Geography final. I really like Professor Mulligan and that has been my favorite class this semester, so I really want to do well on the final. I'll probably start doing outlines for the essay questions he gave us after I finish taking the Biogeography one...

..and after I've had a few rounds of Soul Caliber with Matt and Hamilton...

Welp. Lemme get my books together.

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 11:22 PM

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Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Music: The Specials - Little Bitch
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It's about time I started doing this take home part of my test. I still don't really want to, but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It's just like another one of the weekly papers

Today my hall from last year all went to Perkins for a surprise lunch for my old RA. She's graduating at the end of the semester. Upsetting, yes, but it was cool to see everyone again, with a few notable exceptions. Among those exceptions was my old roommate. Her friend Kelly, who I'd always gotten along with, said that it was probably because she wanted to leave something about last year behind. I'll admit I'm a teeny bit curious about what that is...but not curious enough that I've thought about it more than once (right now) since then. Well I enjoyed last year enough to want to keep in touch with them all. It was a good time had by all and a good meal on top of that (milkshakes and pancakes kick ass).

The days are sure going by slowly, but I just have to wait until the morning of the 18th when I get to make my trip home for Christmas. Can't wait.

This was going to be a more interesting entry, but I've been kind of brainless after all that paper writting. I have been undergoing a regimen of Johnny Depp and Viggo to keep my spirits up.

Now back to the Final exam.

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 7:28 PM

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Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Well it's over at last. I've done all of my papers and now I get to wait until Friday for the first of my finals.

A few After the Fact things:
- I wrote some damned good papers. The one I wrote about discourse surrounding Ireland was one of the most fun to write ever. I read some great works of theory and got to speculate about things all on my own, not having to copy everything out of a book. Just when I was entering an existential crisis over writing countless papers and either (a) never saying anything new in them although I had ideas or (b) knowing that although I'd done good work, no one would ever see it but the teacher. I know that paper isn't going to go further than Professor Mulligan, but I got to use my own voice to make theories.
- I was so worked up this past week and a half that I've given myself tummy trouble. I won't take it any further than that, but let it be known that I'll be cutting quesadillas out of my life for awhile
- Without procrastination, nothing would ever get done. In my avoidance of work, I did the housing survey, dusted my room, rearranged my DVDs in to an actual format, and painted my nails bright red.
- My eyes are kinda wonky. I think I've been staring at a computer screen for too long, since I'm currently typing better without my glasses on than with them. Just look at how nice this entry is (if this thing comes out typo city I'm gonna cry).

But I must admit that after all that rushing around I feel....what's a good word?...post-catharsis, that's it. I feel like there is nothing for me to do now, although there is. My final is on Friday for Biogeography, so I should work on that...but I'm not. Instead I've played the Helicopter game at ebaumsworld about a billion times. My high score is 1672. Play the game and you'll begin to realize just how much time I've put in to that thing.

As of now I have decided to turn to the magic that is Johnny Depp to give my life some purpose. I've been watching Pirates of the Caribbean for the past few hours and it's just ended. I really like the score, so I may try and get that when I go home for break....what the hell is this?...There's something after the credits!? No way! What's this....ARG!! FREAKY ASS DOOM MONKEY! NOOOO!!!

::transmission ended::

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 9:21 PM

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Monday, December 08, 2003

A stream of conciousness play-by-play of my thoughts during Saturday night's 2 and a half hour library marathon

15 minutes: I will research the basic characteristics of carnivorous plants and then focus in detail on two species.
30 minutes: Okay...this is pretty boring...my nails sure are pretty...
45 minutes: I wonder how I chipped this nail. All I did yesterday was play X-2...mmmmm...video games...NO! FOCUS! Venus' Flytraps!
1 hour: Charles Darwin was a fuckin' freak. I know he did the whole "change the way we look at the world and ourselves" thing with Origin of the Species, but this is fuckin' freakish. Who the hell finds time in their life to write a 117 page book on Venus' Flytraps consisting mostly of "I poked the pant with this, here are its responses" and "I poured this on the plant, here are its responses"!? What the fuck....
1.15 hours: You have got to be kidding me. *Francis Darwin* son of *Charles Darwin* also wrote a book about Venus' Flytraps....
1.30 hours: What am I gonna do for my next plant...SWEET! That pitcher plant looks like a rearing snake! Hello, subject for part three of my paper!
1.45 hours: "Upon opening up a Cobra Lily, one may encounter the decomposing skeletons and bodies of frogs, snakes, and other small mammals that made the mistake of seeking shelter within the plant"...kick ass....
2 hours: I wonder how far a paper airplane would fly from this hight....
2.15 hours: Not very far at all...should have noticed that heating duct before I tried this...
2.30 hours: By making these photocopies of distribution maps I will be done with the research portion of my paper!!...wait...what the shit is this!? I brought dimes! I know I did! NOOOOOO!!!! Oh wait there they are.....Maybe I should change my nailpolish...

Ah the dedication of a college student.

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 4:09 PM

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Thursday, December 04, 2003

I really shouldn't be writting right now. For the last month or so I've been very busy with school work, but if I don't take a break I think I might hand myself.

You know you situation sucks when no one tries to outdo you.

A bunch of us were talking about how much work we have during this, the last week of the semester and when I listed the 3 page paper, the 10-12 page paper, the 8-9 page paper, and the overly broad Spanish test....no one said the obligatory "Yeah well I have...". I won. I won the shitty week prize.

My life is now thrown in to startling clarity.

I am going to die today.

There is too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it all. I have to go to a meeting tonight at 6 and afterwards I promised to take a couple of people to Wal-Mart. That's like an hour and a half of my life that I would normally enjoy that I will be doing nothing so much as having axiety attacks during. The test tomorrow is going to suck since she has made gramatically impossible stipulations on what must be in our 8 sentance essay responses. I can't fit in the last of the Political Geography papers so I have to keep one of my C-'s.
And last but not least, I got the worst Quesadilla ever for lunch. The cheese is not melted, it's ice cold, there is almost no chesse in it to begin with, and it was cut all wrong. The only thing to tase about it is the sour cream I have to drench it with.

I wish I could die today.

That or run screaming from the campus and live as adepartment store clerk for the rest of my life. Why can't I just slack off for the rest of my life like my other relatives have. They seem happy and they have about a billion times more fun than I do.

I want so badly for this to end.

Life sucks when there is absolutely nothing to look forward to.

This transmission logged byErisSaid on 1:45 PM

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