A week of Things

Happy Thursday! It's a Blackjack Thursday, but nowadays I find HoldEm has replaced Blackjack as the game of my heart. SO. I got some Hold Em in today, after seeing Ocean's 13 (in which, coincidentally, poker was never mentioned, while blackjack was a plot point).

Here's some cool things of the week:

My Psychic Moment.
I have deja vu often. I see the future in dreams, and then forget about it until it actually happens. At which time I announce that I'm having a deja vu, and proceed to tell you what is happening at the moment. I'm so advanced that I can tell you what's going to happen *next*, I just experience the moment as if I've seen it before (which I have). So it's more like I start going "OH we're all sitting here, and then I move my hand like this, and then I look over there."

I was sitting with my sister watching Colbert Report, and this commercial comes on, advertising both the Daily Show and the Report in a split screen. So I'm like "OH. Deja vu. We're sitting here, and there was that ad, and then for some reason there was no more * sound." I had my hands over my eyes to sort of remember what I "remembered," so I didn't see that at the * there, my sister grabbed the remote and muted the tv. Gah. In the dream it had been delivered in, I remember that the rest of the dream had been soundless, but to actually say "no more sound," and have the sound drop out as you say it, that was pretty cool.

My Senile Moment.
Earlier that day, we were watching Good Eats. (Imagine that, my two favorite shows in the same day...) And I was sitting waaay close to it (and this was the day I didn't do anything at all, keep this in mind) and I notice that Alton's glasses are similar to mine. "He's got the same glasses as me!" I exclaim. And then I try to take my glasses off to hold them up to the screen and compare. I'm grabbing at the space around my eyes, trying to grab my glasses and wondering why I can't get a hold of them. And then I realize and clap my hands to my face--"I'm not wearing my glasses!" Because I hadn't even put them on in the morning.

My Surreal Moment.
Went to bed late last night. It's almost 1:30. I hear rustlings outside, so I lean over my window to look--I've seen a possum and a raccoon on my neighbors' roof after such sounds. This time I don't see anything, but whoever it is is making a lot of racket in the tree that touches their roof. And then OUT OF NOWHERE this giant white owl swoops down and battles that noise maker. I don't know if he got it, but it was quiet after that. And then he flew right by me, not more than three feet away, right up onto the roof above my window. And so I stay there and watch for him to come back, but when he does, I flinch, badly, just because he's so quiet I didn't have any warning (and I startle easy anyhow). And he drifts away into the far neighbor's yard, and then I watch him drift around for a bit, until he finally disappears, absolutely soundless.

My Fan Moment.
In my dream I was at a school/work/place where you go everyday. Also who was there, was Jim Halpert. Yes. Jim Halpert. And he had this buddy, who was either someone I actually know, or just a dream person. And finally I worked up the nerve to hang out with them, and after a while I became really good friends with Jim Halpert. And I was soooooooo happy. Until later I woke up and remembered I had something to be happy about...and then remembered it was just a dream. So all my hopes were crushed.

In weekly news, we joined the YMCA. Again. It still smells the same. Been playing racquetball (or, "crazyinsaneracquetball, which may not actually resemble racquetball), some weight machines. I've been using the treadmills, 'cause the other week I walked round the park, and my weak hip joints started giving out about 2/3 the way through. I want to be a better walker. One day I will walk around the worldz.

AX friends started dropping in. Jacqi and Jennifer school up northwise, and have just came back down for the first time in a long time. So Jacqi helped us sew, and we finished!! Except for patches from ebay, which shooooooooooooooooould come in "soon." Which is good, since the AX is next Friday. Gasp. Jennifer managed to shift out of allll sewing, by finally getting here just today. Happy Thursday, you!

Here's Jacqi as Haruhi:



Oh, and I almost forgot, we replanted the garden, in half wine barrels. Sooo cute.



Here's my Bountiful Garden.



And my Cactuar Family.



D'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

-Steph

summmmmmmmmmmr

Happy Thursday!

I somehow managed to not get dressed today. I really meant to -- first thing I did was do laundry, 'cause my Thursday clothes were dirty. And they're still sitting clean in the basket somewhere by now. Buuuuut....I never got around to it. Yay.

Been going to Carolyn's house to sew like everyday. All the ties are done, three-ish of the tops are mostly done. Things need to be ironed, for sure. Need to buy more fabric, but we bought them out last time, and they may have restocked by tomorrow.

Also, we invented a fun dice game! We have six dice, right? On the floor? Pick any number (1-6, of course)(say, 4) and then you sorta hit the dice with your hand or finger, making it flip. If you get this 4, you hit another die. If you don't, the other person goes. The ones you do flip to 4, the other person can't flip. But they can try to use a free die to knock it over. If they successfully do that, and either one rolls into a 4, that person gets to go again, and the new 4 is theirs. (you can also knock a die into another free die, too) Dice bouncing off of you are legal, but you can't hold them. Also illegal is just pushing it so it just sorta changes sides. When all dice show 4, the player with the most wins. If it's a tie (when playing with 6 dice, or an even number), then you take the number higher (5) and you take turns flipping them until someone gets that, and that's the winner. It's so fun.

AND. The Final Jeopardy question just now was Casino Royale, the book. I totally got that one right.

I also got 17 points, with is pretty good. I think my average last summer was either 12 or 14...so I've improved. Watching the kid/teen/college games are painful 'cause I usually get like 25....they're just ridiculously dumbed down.

Sports bumped Jeopardy, which is why I was watching it at 10 PM.

I mean, we do a lot of sewing. It's really fun.

Another exciting news of the week is that Vicious' flower bloomed. You can see it on my flickr. It's totally amazing and unexpected.

My favorite shows right now are Good Eats and Colbert Report. I want to make some chocolate waffles.

OKAY. Good night to you all.

-Steph

Pretty much officially two years running, w00t.

Happy Casino Royale Thursday! I know it's over now, for most of you, but I just got around to this. You see, my day was filled with pursuing the fine arts, primarily those of video photography and tailoring. Seemstressing. Sewing. Cosplaying.

I taped my mom's fifth grade musical play thing, "Samuelita." About a little "Mexican" girl who gets evangelized against her town and family's wishes, and then gets to go to school. Hoorays. I'm capturing it as we speak, to make a DVD tonight to send back to school with mom in the morning, so the kiddies can see how great they were.

The rest of the day! Cosplay central. I'll walk you through it.

Ouran High School Host Club is a show about a group of guys (and a girl, but whatever) who run a host club at their school full of rich kids. It's hilarious. Their school uniforms are black pants and blue jacket things, and ties. Our goal is to make the jacket things and the ties, and sooner or later the ebay guy will get his act together so we can get the school badges in time to iron on.

Carolyn's the shape master, and has been in charge of putting together costumes from her mind year after year. Western-style coat tops are proving unreasonably weird. But they're coming along. The first one's almost finished, I've worn it. Needs sleeves. Should turn out good.

My job's been making ties. Dark blue ties, with a purple stripe down the middle. I made a tie before, for Touya...but I'm making these completely differently than that one. For one, I have a poster board pattern, rather than using the cut-up tie I bought at a thrift store. It looks like this:

So I put that on the fabric, trace it, cut it out a bit bigger than that, fold on the traced line, pin the extra down, and then sew it into a tie-shape. I've done two so far, by hand, but I'll probably stop being crazy and start using my mom's machine. Carolyn's has been busy with the tops, so. Then I pin this purple ribbon we bought onto it, and Carolyn does sew that down. The two we've finished look something like this:

Not quite 100% finished.

Then, buttons. Made buttons. With these friendly little things:

They're great on the thumbs. You wrap the fabric around the front, and try to get it hooked onto the teeth there, and then you quckly snap a backing onto it, and then you've got yourself a putton of the same color as your jacket. We didn't you this one because it inexplicably came defective as it doesn't have a loop to be a button. You'll see what I mean in this picture, of the finished buttons:

Sew beautiful.

This hand sewing and fabric hooking takes a lot longer than it sounds. That's why it took all day. The one tie only took one day, start to finish, but the other one I started yesterday. Still have to make four more. And poor Carolyn, needing to be making, what, five and a half more? For the pack we're bring along.

The finished product will look something like this:

I'd love to chat more, but I'm sorta outta time today. We'll play poker some other day, alright? The video is almost done capturing, so I'll attend to that. I'll keep you updated on AX progress if you want.

-Steph

How is it Thursday again??

Happy Full Moon Thursday! /End of the Month Thursday! /Thirsday!

Hold on, I'm eating some pie.

Ok. It's a great sort of Thursday that starts with a trip to the dentist. XP. I've got a stunty tooth, you may not know. It's malformed, and maybe it'll get capped soon. Other than that, I should floss.

Rest of the day spent hanging out, playing "DDR" on the computer, watching tv, and doing math.

"Doing MATH?" I know you must be screaming at your screen right now, "Stephanie NO, we must find you a doctor AT ONCE!!" Hahah, no, gentle reader! It was in my allotted math for the year; math regarding the Anime Expo. The only crunching of numbers I rejoice in are solely related to adding hotel tax and dividing fabric costs by number of wearers. These are great numbers, and the math is a wonder to see (and a pain to figure out the next day).

So, the Great Cosplay Race has officially started this year. And with a whole month to go before the AX! We surely are improving. We're going as the members of the Ouran High School Host Club, and beyond our standard group is a pack of newcomers who are basically making up every character in this show. We really will be a pack, and I expect much photography to be directed at us. Of course, with Host Club being ever-popular, we'll likely have some competition. But we will prevail! Through sheer strength of numbers!!

Great numbers.

This week's also been "spend money on tv/movies" week. We saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Honestly, it could have been better, but I'm not complaining so much as to not enjoy it. It was fun. Dark, a little, not as outlandishly hilarious as Dead Man's Chest. I want to see Curse of the Black Pearl again, separate One from TwoandThree in my mind. TwoandThree are almost like a whole separate movie. But they're not bad. Bought the soundtrack for At World's End, and I've been enjoying that as well. (Hans Zimmer composed TwoandThree, another difference from One, composed primarily by Zimmer-protege Klaus Badelt). There's a pirate dirge and a rollicking new theme competing with the old. But the old is still very fun to blare in your car with the windows rolled down. ^^

On the same purchase as said CD, I also ran across the complete series of Firefly (as if it sold in any other format) for $16.99. A steal. That's a little more than a dollar an episode. It's a dollar and 31 cents, if my math serves me right. (a math splurge. it's okay if it's for something entirely irrelevant to life) I keep wanting to pop it in and watch all of it in one go (wouldn't that be amazing), but I'm waiting for my lazy sister to finish with school and come home to watch it with me. We have plenty things to watch, like Entourage. And something else. Heroes.

Side note - Veronica Mars was cancelled. There may be a resolution work in the future (think Serenity, Firefly fans), but who knows. Mourn with me.

And whilst at Blockbuster, picked up Little Miss Sunshine, Lucky # Slevin, and Stranger than Fiction for a grand sum of $20. Haven't seen the first yet, but I figured it was worth buying, what I know of it. Slevin I will always love, and now I get to watch the commentaries. Same with Fiction, which I've seen twice, twice and a half in the last week or so. Also picked up the script at B&N, which is so lucky I can't even believe. Being a movie about writing, I am inherently interested in the script....looked for it online, but then there it was, right in front of my face, and it's everything I ever wanted. More or less. Zach Helm, the screenwriter, is a funny guy. He and I share writing characteristics, as shown by some author's notes, which I'm taking as a good sign.

Have also been spending the last weekish researching Europe for the background of this story series I have floating around in my head. I won't bore you with the details, but I'll just say it started off a random, Random experience at Vons last summer, and now it's one of my epic mind-stories. I battled my mind-bloat by writing every scrap of plot outline I have in my head. Three pages. Nice. And things have been aligning for this, like when I suddenly had to give Callum a last name, the first one I clicked on originated in the very place I'd already planned him to have been born. It was spooky.

Oh, when the kids and their parents were here (hahah, I mean Kevin and Gretchen and the little ones), outings were had, and pictures were taken. Expect some evidence of these to show up on Flickr sooner or later. Those little ones are soooooo cute, just crazy. Absolutely outta their minds crazy. The little one? Eating her corn and then suddenly: "Skywishes isn't shy!!" Yeah, I know, totally predictable. It's great.

Ah-ha, so I seem to have been more "into it" this week, so I'll let you catch your collective breaths. I'll see you all next month, hahah.

-Steph

Invasion!

Happy Thursday!

My brother and his family is here to visit from Colorado! I want to direct you to my Flickr to see pictures of them, but I haven't taken any yet. I do, though, have a set there, my Japanese presentation on my family, that is relevant. In Japanese, though. But I have pictures on my camera right now that I need to put on my computer.

I really want to write something interesting today, but I am again distracted by the tv. But today it's Studio 60, which I've never seen before. It's not bad. It's a show about a live show, which I sorta know about from silly film class. Live television is one thing I will never do. But Studio 60 is weird. It's like 30 Rock in premise, but not as funny. It's like ER in it's intense shifting around between people and their issues. It ain't as good as 30 Rock. Or most shows.

Veronica Mars ended, and it was good enough. I still need to see the second season, but the first season was truly epic. Lost was strange. Very strange. Office finale was cute.

Oh, sadday because I didn't wear my Thursday clothes because they were dirty. Did my laundry last week *on* Thursday, silly me.

Hm, seems the internet cut out just now. Hope this goes through when I'm done.

So I've been having these intense dreams where all sorts of plotty things happen in distinct places with well-developed characters. And we have conversations and conflicts and wars and bake sales and stuff. I think it's because I haven't written anything for like a month and a half, so I have like, the mind-bloat, and it's coming out at night. I wish the dreams made more sense so that I could remember them and write them.

Now Alton Brown's gonna teach me about tuna.

-Steph

1,543,151,900

Happy Thursday! That's my high score for Pokemon Pinball. I know, I'm awesome.

Today there was only one other guy in Yomama, and Carolyn thought he might work there, and I thought he might work at Vons....but when we were driving away, he drove away in front of us so we chased him! And he pulled into the back of the post office, so that mystery was solved.

Oh. Speaking of. I think I wimped out on that mystery thing. I'm way too lazy. And I already convinced myself of who the criminal was, and I didn't mean to. It was the girl. Of course.

I'm super tired. For no good reason. Gah. So I'm not super invested in being interesting today.

Can't wait to watch tonight's Office again later on the internet. It was pretty good. ^^ The summer is always sad when everything goes on their season finales and leaves us for dead. Except then those summer shows pop up, like that dancing one. But they're never as good as the real shows, y'know?

But movies! We rented all kinds of movies. Gonna see a bunch of things I meant to see but didn't: The Good Shepherd, Stranger than Fiction, Night at the Museum. Ok, three things. Also got Fulltime Killer for old times sake. Gonna apply to Blockbuster for working funs, since I saw something about free rentals. You know, to keep up my studies while I'm out of school. XD Still love my major.

Here's a list of names I'd give pets if I got them:

Kittens:
Roxas
Richard (the lion hearted) [a giant yellow one]
The Baron
Lazer
Simon
Simba II XD ....;_;

Puppies:
Snacks [some small one]
Czech [one of those little Scotties]
Jim (James) [Welsh Corgi]
John (Johnathan) [Great Dane]

I'm going to be a cat lady, on a cat farm. And some of them we'll mutate into tigers. And one of those tigers I will name Sammy.

Arrhharhhrhhgg.

See you next time!
-Steph

Summer. ^^

Happy Thursday!

First off, I'd like to say that I somehow managed to get a 91% in media class, which means that my only B was in clay class! I got 99/100 on my media class final because of ten bonus points I swung on the essays. Heeeeeeeee.

This summer I'm planning on making some sort of video project on abandoned old things in Ventura. So I've been reading up on the city, and it's very interesting. And then I drive around town and point out useless facts about buildings. ^^ I'm very fun to be around nowadays.

Oh dear, how I've been driving. Not well! ......Sorry. ;p I drove downtown by myself to check out the buildings I'd just read about (and go to this crazy hidden park we discovered over spring break), and I even went into a store and asked them about my thrift store camera all on my own. It was an adventure. But I think I don't really like being downtown on my own. =/

I don't think I like being home alone all day, either. Dad's a work, and mom's at work, but yesterday and tomorrow she's at camp. Today, too, but I thought that might be implied. I've been watching Veronica Mars online yesterday and today. I'm just an ep and a half away from finishing season one, but they load so slowly. But man, that's always been a good show. Shoot. I love it.

But me and dad went out to dinner today, just got back. We went out to this restaurant, the Vagabond Inn restaurant....now that's a shady place. Hahah. It was packed, too. We talked about his snazzy new camera and took pictures of a napkin to see how the different settings work. (I like techno stuff, according to my dad, who's talking to my sister on the phone behind me) I already knew some camera stuff, in a video camera context, but still cameras are a bit different. I want to take pictures! And make movies. So I think I will.

OH. My dad is good at reminding me what happened today, as he tells my sister behind me. I went with him to a Rotary lunch today, at that new park with the water stuff? Hahah, old people. It was fun, since there was free food, and I got to go on a tour which went into the authorized personnel only building where all the pool filters and heaters are. And then a guy gave me a cooke. XD And then as we were leaving, we started talking to this one guy, who started talking to us about rockets. Yes. Rockets. He launches them, for fun. In the desert. He's very enthusiastic about rockets. It was adorable. Old people, man.

So other than that, I've just been sleeping, and playing DDR, a bit of FFXII. TV. Veronica Mars, of course. Lost really freaked me out last night, especially since I was all alone.......geez, man. That's a weird show. Gonna do some cooking. Make some red bean paste and some Japanese sweets that contain that. See if anyone else but me likes 'em.

Well, it's about time to find out who really killed Lilly Kane. TTYL.

-Steph

Halfway done?

HAPPY THURSDAY.

I'm a junior in college now. Actually, I have been this whole last semester, from credits, but now I am year-wise. Huzzah.

The most exciting thing that happened today was that I went on line and found that Dr. Creasman had graded our final papers. This would be the paper I wrote on the Office, which I saw I mentioned last week. Probably because I'd just finished writing it the day before. AND. I got 95/100!!! Which excited me first. THEN. I read his comments:


STEPHANIE- THIS IS A DELIGHTFUL PAPER—FUN TO READ AND IT HAS AN ACADEMIC EDGE TO IT. VERY NICELY DONE. I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A STRONG PAPER WHEN YOU PRESENTED ON IT IN CLASS. GOOD JOB. GOOD ACADEMIC SOURCES. YOU HAVE A FEW TINY SPELLING ERRORS AND OMISSIONS AND COULD PROBABLY EXPAND YOUR FAITH/SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS TO A FULL PARAGRAPH. BUT, THOSE ARE MINOR QUIBBLES IN AN OTHERWISE STRONG PAPER. P.S. CAN I USE THIS AS A MODEL FOR OTHER/FUTURE CLASSES? I WANT TO GIVE THEM A STUDENT-AUTHORED EXAMPLE TO SHOW THEM HOW TO DO IT RIGHT.


Like, dude. I told you that one of the academic sources was an article on the X-Files, right? Overall, I'm just thrilled.

Grade-wise, I see myself getting a B+ in that class. Possssssibly an A- if he is blind and doesn't see how awful my final essays were. The final was essays (which I know are ... just bad), and like the easiest multiple choice test ever. So if the multiple choice bit was weighted more than the essays, I'll say I have a A-.
Japanese: A. For sure.
Clay class: Not sure. A, probably.
Jesus class: A, shoot.
Film/Lit: ehhhhh, probably an A...-.

Our little house had one last splurge of bonding this last week. Monday was family dinner--we tried to go to Mediterranean, but the one place was like probably full of gangsters, and the other place was Coming Soon! So we went across the street to Dai Shogun, the cute little Japanese place my brother introduced me to. And Megan had never had Japanese food! Only sushi, she said. It was fun and cute, and the lady took our picture.

And then Tuesday was family lunch, and I made chicken curry for us all, and it was a hit. It's one of my new favorite things to eat. And it's hecka cheap, too.

Oh, and television was top class this week, too. Raines was not spectacular, but it almost made me cry. Veronica Mars is back (urg, finally!) and it was not spectacular, either, but the end made me roll around on the floor screaming and having little spasms. It was just so beautiful. Side note, how cool is it that two of my new most favorite shows are detective/mystery shows on at the same time? I think that's crazy cool. Lost was really intense, and I almost cried at Sawyer 'cause he reminded me of Ryan, who's my baby. For clarification: http://www.geocities.com/runrunhoshi/index.html . Here's rooting for a spectacular Office tonight and a rocking Raines tomorrow.

Ah, good, I unwittingly gave myself a segue for what I really wanted to talk about this week. Mysteries. I'm going to write one, because I never have before and yet they rank high in my list of genres to adore. A well written mystery is worth more than a bundle of sticks, in my book. So here's my proposition:

The Summer Project

In a gray world, one man is brave enough to wear brown.

Rusty Thursday, Private Investigator, is on the case. He seeks justice, and the truth.

Coming this summer to a Thursday near you.

What do you say to, this summer, a Thursday-sponsored side project of weekly installments of a mystery story you have a say in? I'll write a new bit every week, and it'll last all summer, until the culprit is caught. I'll set up a separate website for it, where every week's chapter will be posted, and there will be outlets for comments and discussion among the readers. And since I'm your bud and not some Hollywood exec, your comments and discussion will be heard! Y'know, it'd just be something fun and interesting to look forward to each week besides the standard journal entry. And you know how dull they got last summer (although one can blame Vons). I'm up for it, if there's an interest in it.

Right now I'm thinking that the crime is sabotage, and the Reds are involved. But, as we all know, Communism could just be a red herring.

Happiest Summer Thursday to you all,
-Steph

Classes are Over

Happy Thursday at last!

Thursday really is the day when I can stop for the afternoon and not worry about anything. And then I get to watch amazing television.

Tuesday after class, I started re-writing my 10 page paper on The Office for media class. Well, more like reading scholarly sources for it (including an article on X-Files fans--I love my major). I did this until I went to bed at one. I woke up early at 7:30, wrote for an hour and then went to chapel. Then I came back and wrote until one, where I turned it in (through the internet) and went to clay class. We just cleaned things there, so we got out early and now it's technically over. Then I napped in the grass and then in my room, and then I went to media class, where everyone talked about their papers. I went last, but it was alright because I just got to ramble about The Office and quote fans from Facebook. We got out just early enough for me to swing by the caf, and while I was in there, I saw Aubrey and Leandra and their buddy, so I ate with them. And then they gave me a ride over to Bowles 'cause that's where they live, and I was going to go there later to watch Lost at Megan's. And also I was supposed to be starting another paper due this morning for Jesus class we were both in.

But I didn't. So I went straight home after Lost and went to sleep. Got up an hour early at 7, managed to write something like what was assigned for that class and print it out and go to it. There wasn't a lecture, just weird videos made by a former student, and we got out early and now that's over. So straight from there I came back and formed my Japanese presentation for later that day (and it's in the form of the set on Flickr called "Watashi no Kazoku"). Finished just in time to go to film/lit at one.....that was an alrightish class and now it's over. Went straight to Japanese (as always) and threw my hand in the air to go first since I was really sick worrying about getting it over with. But it wasn't that bad, and she'd brought Japanese snacks. Two were excellent (totemo umai yo) and one was bizarre. And unfortunately now my formal Japanese education is over.

I still have to write papers/essays/movies, though. Jesus class and Japanese are just test-finals, and I'm not worried about those at all.

Clay class, I have to write another paper (what is up with that??) on three of my pieces (which are all done....but I never got around to making a lidded container....chansey....). Media class, part one of the final is three 3-4 page essays; part two is a trivial fact multiple choice test. Film and lit, I have to finish my weird movie project thing, and then there's a T/F/multiple choice/short answer/group presentation final.

Gah. It can't be over soon enough. But I guess it won't be, so I don't have much to worry about. I mean. It will be over soon. This is what I mean. A weekend, and a week, and that's it, and I'm back in town working somewhere and watching anime and finishing FFXII. And cooking! I want to cook. And bake. (and sew) And write!! I have a lot of ideas tumbling around because I don't want to be working on all this school work. You know how it is?

This year and this semester went by crazy fast. Although last semester seems so long ago. Like, I actually forget what classes I had last semester, and what people I met only last semester. It's like I've known everyone forever. Sigh, college. It's where all the cool kids be at.

One more chapel. One more meal. 13 more dining dollars. One more class meeting each. Packing up again. Moving home again. Saying good bye again.

Yesterday, amid the hecticness of shuffling myself back and forth, I passed an interesting sight: A take-out box from the caf, sitting on the ground. At its side, one of those cookies you can get at the Den. Facing both of these--a spray bottle of no drip Windex. I wrote a haiku:

Abduction
The aliens thought
it would be polite to leave
something in return

-Steph

Tales of the Caf, Vol. II

April 19, 2007

Dealing with the caf this week has been especially dangerous. It seems to be going through a previously un-documented phase, where it exhibits the traits of other culinary species. We've tentatively named the phenomenon "International Cuisine Week."

The first few days were shaky, as if the caf was having trouble adjusting to the changes it was experiencing. But the worst seems to be past, peaking yesterday evening, and today things have...well, they've far from returned to normal, but at least they've steadied out.

All signs point to this tempermental stage only lasting through tomorrow. While this was a learning experience for both the subject and the observer, my colleagues and I look forward to things returning to normal. We will, however, be on the lookout for this kind of behavior in the future.

Taken from the journal of Dr. Stephanie Anderson

_________________________

Happy Thursday!

It isn't strictly the "international" that I worry about--it's the "cuisine" that makes me raise a dubious eyebrow. I don't care what it's called, I don't even necessarily need to be able to identify all the ingredients. I just want to be able to eat it.

Other news: the box of oranges invited a scourge of little flies, so we had to get rid of the dregs.

Other other news:

Last updated: Wednesday, April 18, 8:40 a.m.

Notice to APU
Students, Faculty, and Staff:

APU Campus Safety Department, in
conjunction with the Azusa Police
Department, has given an all-clear on East
Campus. Classes, chapel, and
other events will proceed as scheduled. The two
departments' quick action
helped to assure the safety of our
community.

Additional patrols will take place throughout the day to
ensure the safety
and security of the campus.

We thank you once
again for your cooperation in this matter. If you have
further questions,
call Campus Safety dial (626) 815-3898. For emergencies,
call 811 from an
on-campus phone or 911 from off campus.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
www.apu.edu/response/

Last updated: Wednesday, April 18, 12:45
a.m.

Notice to East Campus APU Residents:

A suspect
with two outstanding warrants was thought to be on the APU campus;
however,
the Azusa Police Department has called off the search. The suspect
is known
not to be violent by Azusa PD and the Chief of Campus Safety.
Students are
restricted to their residences until sunrise. Campus Safety is
providing
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That was a little scary. The four of us hung out in our little hallway with our laptops until like 1. It was a cute little bonding time.

School's somehow almost over. Me and Megan got an apartment in UP, which is the closest set of apartments. Our random third roommate is one Kelly Yandell. Hullo, Kelly. I have a lot of writing to do for pretty much every class (another paper for clay class???), but I've been doing creative and fun writing instead. (To be fair, though, one of the creative writings is also one of these class writings) I've also been listening to a lot of music. I also was a little sick over the weekend, and now I still have a bit of a cough. But I finally got a good night's sleep last night, and that was fun. Also, I tried my first energy drink, a Full Throttle Blue Demon flavor or whatever, and it is very disgusting. But, I only have around $20 left on my school-food monies, and I can easily use that up on snacks in the next week.

I'm happy the weekend is here. Stay classy, San Diego.

-Steph

I'm really bad at coming up with titles

Happy Thursday! I'm super surprised how fast it came around. It's probably because I had three days of school this week. Which was very nice. And I even got out of a few classes early. Yaaaaaay.

What do I talk about today?

I'm going to write you a story.

Once upon a time, I went to the caf for dinner. I didn't know what was going to be there, but I was going to hope for the best. Outside of the caf, I met a guy named Eric Bridges. He was deciding whether he should go to the caf or to the den (because the choices at the den were never as nebulous).

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm going....to eat...hopefully," I vaugely responded.

"What are you going to do...instead of eating?" he asked.

That might not have been exactly what he said, but what he meant was: "Why don't you sound so sure about eating?"

So I thought about it. "A flood could come in, and wash everything away. And then nothing would be left. Except for ......... a skating rink." Ah-- "Without a snack bar," I finished.

"Yeah, I was about to call you on that," he said.

"Yeah, I'm glad I caught it."

And then, the flood came and we found ourselves on top of the skating rink. We climbed down and found it to be full of 80s music and disco lights. Megan Hoffmann was there, having class (because this was the only building left, of course).

Unfortunately, the snackbar was cemented over, and Eric had no food in his backpack. Coincidentally, none of the students had anyfood in their backpacks, either. We didn't want to ask the skaters, but they seemed to be enjoying the music, so we were slightly frightened of them.

"I'm going out," I bravely declared, "and I will see if there is any food to be found out there."

Everyone wished me luck, and I ventured out. I was somewhat surprised to find that we were now in the mountains, and that it was raining. All that remained of the flood was a pond out back. A shady looking man stepped out from behind a tree and approached.

"My name is Rodolpho, and I train a league of circus skull monkeys. Care to donate?"

I saw my chance. "Only if you have any food on you." I drove a hard bargain, I did.

He thought about it. "Yeah, I think I have a box of oranges hanging around somewhere."

"That'll work," I said.

And that's the story about how I aquired a box of oranges, which still exists to this very day.

The man's name was Johnny Carson, by the way.

-Steph

Late on a Thursday!

Happy Thursday! I'm super tired! Yay~

So I got my wisdom teeth out last friday. That was thrilling. Had some fun adventures with vicodin, but now I'm on Advil. Gonna see the doctor again tomorrow! He has a great name: Hooman Zarrinkelk. Is that not amazing or what?

Oh, yeah, I'm on spring break, if I haven't mentioned that before. I always forget to mention important stuff like that. It's a fun week off, except for the whole surgery part. And not being able to eat most things, or anything quickly.

Today me and Carolyn had a sort of movie day, where we watched Curse of the Golden Flower and Subway. Wow. What a mix.

Golden Flower you may have heard of, it's a recentish Chinese movie with Chun Yow Fat and Gong Li. It is........bizarre. Confusing. Not a lot of plot. Some crazy family ....stuff. The palace is a crazy place to be in, anad it's all different colors. There's a lot of gold, too. It was pretty funny at times, but not because it wanted to be. XD

Subway, on the other hand, managed to make a bit more sense while being a lot more boring. We saw it last time we rented movies, with it's crazy 80s cover (and it's a tape XD!), and we finally got around to watching it......it's a French movie! Except since it was so old and on tape, it was dubbed. And I'd forgotten how dubbing is entirely weird when it's real people rather than anime. Sorta amazed that we got through the whole thing...but we're pretty resilient to not great movies.

And then we watched tv! But I don't remember it all anymore. There was Survivorman, but we didn't see if he made it off the island because we went and watched The Office and 30 Rock and Scrubs and Zim. In fact, I'm still watching Zim. But I'm really tired, so I probably won't be up so much later after it's over.

Hmmmmmmmmmmyes. Sleepy.

-Steph

Spring Break!

Happy Thursday! I'm going home sometime tonight! And tomorrow!!!

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out.

Yay.

Also! My power cord spontaneously died the other day! So I'm stealing my roommate's, but that's not going to help this coming week...... It's a little troubling. Silly electronics.

I'm also pretty hungry. Awwww. Last solid food for a week!

But after spring break, there's only three weeks of school left. That makes me happy inside. Summer! Yay! For real this time.

I don't think I'll get to watch Raines today, and that makes me sad. I want to see if the third episode is better than the second, or as good as the first. Last week's wasn't so amazing. But not nearly as bad as Lost was yesterday. I mean, c'mon, people. That episode had no point, and the entire world would have been better off if they hadn't made it. It was weird, and pointless, and creepy! And there wasn't a need for any of it. 0o Like, at all. If it was a show that invested itself in vingettes rather than in arcs and plotlines, then it would have been bareable. But....it itsn't, and it wasn't.

When will the Office be new!

I like FFXII. I need to pack my PS2.

Yay, my dad is coming to get me.

Today, 1867 - U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska for US$7.2 million from Russia.

Last Thursday is an important date in the Last Thursdayism movement, a parody of omphalism which claims that the Universe was created last Thursday.

Says Wikipedia.

I guess I'll stop now, since I really don't know what I'm doing.

-Steph

Oh, but oh yeah, pictures from when we went to California Adventure are on my Flickr, if you wanted to see them.

Lemme change it up a bit

Happy Thursday! Today is the 22nd, and I should have come up with something snazzy to celebrate today, but I forgot. Chansey.

Remember how, back in the day, these letters or whatever they were were primarily about Thursday? They were about specifically the neat things that happened today (because "neat" and "Thursday" have a co-causal relationship in Thursdayland, and I was just slapping down the proof), or even completely RANDOM and perhaps untruthful facts about Thursday. I mean, it was strictly a celebration of Thursdayness and the color brown.

Lately, I've noticed that's it's been my weekly journal for a long time now. When I noticed, I thought that maybe I'd try to go back to what it was, ie, stop it from being what it presently was. And then I thought, nah, it's evolved, and I'm sure it'll have several different stages in its (optimistically) long life. No point in turning back when there's still a forward to anticipate.

But then I think, what's so interesting about reading about what I did on Saturday and Tuesday, and what paper I have yet to write in the next half hour and what I think of Meredith Grey? I know I wrote that emo rant a while back proclaiming that I didn't have to nor want to cater to a picky audience, but I'm willing to say that my weekly itinerary isn't that interesting to even the most open-minded person.

I mean, I'm sure it is, for some. And being out of town as I am, it's a pretty easy way to keep people updated and whatnot. For instance, I spontaneously got a hair cut on Monday, and it's very short and I like it a lot. There's some of you who would only ever know that from reading this. But.

I think today I'd like to write you a free-association essay on the effect music has on identity. Wait, don't close the window. I won't take long.

The thing that pleases me the most about my Zune (whom I named Sora -"sky"- in recognition of its wireless capacity), and the feature that I've been abusing utilizing the most is the radio. I've always been a supporter of the concept of radio, and now I have it portably, and it's a musical choice that's way more accessible because of that. I listened to culture-y NPR on Saturday, and that was enriching, but from Sunday to the present I've been exploring the depths of KROQ.

K-R-O-Q, "K-Rock," is a rock station. And after listening to it for four days straight, I've come to realize that I didn't exactly know what rock was. I've had a tendency to label the music Live 105.5 plays as "real music," and have used the flavor of that station to belittle the stations here in LA. 105.5 is alternative, with some rock and some pop. Because this is all there is in Ventura County, that's what I know. That's what I like, through repetition and familiarity more than through actually fondness of the genre or style.

KROQ doesn't play John Mayer. There's no Kelly Clarkson, and there's none of the singles that I know neither title nor artist, but know nonetheless simply because it is "popular." There's no Fallout Boy, All American Rejects, or Panic! At the Disco, and these last three are what I think come closest to "real music" in my mind right now. The world of Rock is Modest Mouse, NIN, Korn, Nirvana, Linkin Park, Incubus, and some Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Green Day. The major difference that I can see between 105.5 and KROQ (and so the genres of their music) is that every three songs I'll have to switch from 105.5 to 95.1 or some other static to avoid a song I absolutely despise. KROQ, on the other hand, I've been listening to for four days straight.

I don't love every song, no, but I don't hate any, either. I have fallen in love with some, and am hoarding them jealously from the world. What gets me the most, though, is how I never thought to listen to this music before? Look what I was missing out on! I like this animal called Rock, and yet I didn't truly understand it before now. Why?

I think that there's three reasons a person falls on to form an opinion about a song.
First- the sound of the music. There's something about the plain sound of country that makes me cringe. There's something about the sound of Linkin Park that makes me incredible happy.
Two- what the song stands for. I dislike rap for it's subject matter--I particularly like the sound of rapping, which is something I like about Linkin Park and my Asian-languaged rap, but I can't stand the genre "rap." This second condition also points to the artist, and the stuff related to the artist. It's not only that I dislike Britney Spears' music, but I also dislike Britney Spears.
Three- the opinion of your clique. It was cool to like NSYNC, then it wasn't (and even when it was, you couldn't simultaneously like the Backstreet Boys). It was or was not cool to like Avril Lavigne (and still is and isn't). It's never been cool to like Classical. Among Linkin Park fans, liking LP is a cool thing; to everyone else, you're an immature emo-wannabe.

This is where music has the chance to become your identity. I think I stayed at the edges of the Rock community because of its reputation. I'd heard Korn and Green Day before, and they seemed to be the sort of band that labeled its fans. I mean, you can't just be a person who happens to like Green Day. As soon as you say, "hey, this is a cool song," you become a "Green Day Fan," and something significant about you has changed, and everyone knows it and judges you appropriately by it. Music, your taste in it, marks you.

And people do act like this. I know I've looked at some one's internet profile and judged them worthy or not solely on the band names listed under Favorite Music. Loyalty to a style of music is what formed the hippie and grunge and goth and punk and even emo sub-cultures. I mean, fashion sense is affected by the type of music you and your friends listen to.

So when I clicked out of the radio (KROQ seems to stop playing music in the evening, and instead has a "love line") and set my library on shuffle, I felt like a stranger walking into someone else's house. This is what got me thinking, because I truly enjoy my J-Pop and instrumental and soundtrack type music that populates my playlist. This is music I know I like, and have liked, and will continue to like. But after listening to ROCK! for four days straight, it was as if I'd taken on the ROCK! mantle, like I'd been parading around in it, and I had to sheepishly take it off to return to the music I'd abandoned.

My semi-related point is that I can like rock, and I can like alternative, and I can like J-pop, and I can like movie scores, and I don't have to pick one or the other. Or other. They are far from being mutually exclusive, even if I have a funny preconditioned notion that they should be.

Heheh, I didn't mean to write on this for half an hour. I just thought it was interesting, is all. I open the floor for discussion.

-Steph

Weird and Tired Thursday

Happy Thursday!

I had a fun birthday. Disneyland was fun, not too hot, but it was pretty full of people. THANKS GUYS.

In addition to my fun presents from pre-Saturday, I got several more fun things like a teeny-tiny harmonica and the Casino Royale book. And also! A Zune. A cute brown Zune that gets the radio and I named him Sora.

Today in Scrubs Kelso made everyone wear ugly brown scrubs so people would stop stealing them. And they were ugly brown scrubs, but not because they were brown, but because they were a sort of dirty purple. But Dr. Cox was wearing a brown shirt that was much the same color as mine. And, it was the first Scrubs ep I've seen in a long time, and it was quite excellent. Oh, the Janitor. I've missed him.

And it made fun of Grey's, which I'm watching now.

Another exciting mail item was my memory card, which I've gone without for a few months. Kingdom Hearts is still fun, I'd like to inform you. I'll take another go at FFXII when Raines is over......Maybe tomorrow I'll start the Alias game! Oh, and meanwhiles I re-got into The Longest Journey, and now I'm about half way through. It's still fun, for sure.

The exciting school thing this week was how my clay things are moving along. And then I started the next project, which is to make three related tiles. Tiles are good to me, because they're not frustrating to make. Throwing things is really complicated and I'm not patient enough to like that a lot. But with tiles, you just flatten out the clay and cut it into a square and then draw on it. Monday I spent the entire three hours drawing and coloring three different cactus-based ones. And yesterday I started another set that'll be fun. The designs'll go on after the glaze, so right now they're really boring--just blue. I'm looking forward to how these come out. And for how I'll be decorating my bowl and pot. Fun.

I'd also like you all to know that Raines seems to be an excellent show. Hoshi from Enterprise, and Meredith's dad. And Jeff Goldblum. Oh, I think that guy's from Remember the Titans. I think it's a keeper. Also, I enjoy watching something set in LA. It's been too long.

Erg, though, this new movie The Shooter, or whatever? The Fugitive meets Bourne Identity. Not interested.

Still want to see Zodiac and 23, although I heard that 23 is "as boring as watching some guy do a sudoku" or something to that affect.

I'm pretty tired, so I'm having to dig for words and topics that fit together. Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat else interesting....?

I don't have to wake up tomorrow, since I got a free chapel absence. That's going to be fun. Everything seems to be fun today. Oh, weather guy said something about fog. That also sounds fun. Azusa's been feeling like Ventura the past few days, and that's throwing me off a bit. Yeah, alright, I'm out.

-Steph

Teenagedom, you will be missed

Happy Thursday, all! Today is the 8th, and this is officially my last Thursday as a teen. Oh, where does the time go? I remember back when I was figuring out how old I would be in 2000, and was "wow! 13 is really old!"

I didn't ask for Spring for my birthday, and it's actually a good thing, 'cause I got Summer instead~ I'm good for a double summer. It was funny because in the mornings there were clouds, so the house was full of gray, so when you opened the door, the 75 degrees caught you unawares. One of these days, Tuesday it must have been, I wandered to the front door and enjoyed standing on the porch so much that I ended up strolling around the mods area. It was neat because I wasn't wearing shoes, and even though it was like 8:30, the cement wasn't cold at all.

Today was a little colder, but internet says Saturday in Anaheim will be partly cloudy with a high of 82. What am I doing in Anaheim, you may ask? Surely the AX hasn't come around again ALREADY, you may be wondering. Oh-hoh, no! I'm going to Disneyland! I'm taking my mom and my dad and my best friend Carolyn! *waves* I haven't been there since that last band trip I went on. So I'm looking forward to that.

Got two presents in the mail today! That's a once-in-a-lifetime event, getting TWO package slips in your box in a single day. Happy Thursday Packages! From my brother (Firefly soundtrack--very fun, thanks!) and I think Jennifer (cute manga- yay!!).

Another fun but unrelated news is that today the people from the West Wind magazine, APU's literary thing (think Pawprint) emailed me and said they all loved Ballad of an Emancipated Bagger, but that it was a little long. So I did a quick cut and sent it back to them, and I hope that works out.

Ummm, the rest of the week? It was slow and lazy. And warm. No school yesterday due to Common Day of Learning, and sleeping in since chapel was later. Phil Vischer, creator of Veggie Tales, was the speaker, and he was really neat. I'd link you up with the video, but it's not online yet. Also yesterday, I started my 10 page paper on The Office, since five pages were due sometime that day. And you know what! I wrote five pages! And didn't feel like dying afterward! Hooray for my major! I even had time left in the day to watch Lost freely, and read for other classes (including Through the Looking Glass, man my life is hard).

Oh, and the high point from the weekend was that I made curry for the first time, and it was really good. Finally finished it off today. I'll make it for you sometime, it was fun. Still today I'm going to make cupcakes from the cakemix I brought back from home. Hooray for birthdays.

There's a nasty monster cricket who keeps approaching me. I dislike him. There's also a small cricket exploring the kitchen. The crickets are bad because they blend into the carpet. -_-

I'll catch you on the other side!

-Steph

Springtime?

Happy Thursday and Happy March! You all know what that means~ You have a good ten days.

I want to talk about the weather. Last week or so I happened to be walking back from West Campus and I was startled to see that one tree with the little pink flowers. I mean, it already had those flowers. And here I was feeling like winter had finally started. But it's pretty much the same time of year as that photojournalism thing I did last time around. Those crazy trees are growing greeny leaves while their old purple leaves are still waiting to fall.

The weekend, though, it rained. And was really cold. Well, the whole week it's been cold. Cold as it's been all year. For the first time today it cleared up so that Mt. Baldy with its impressive snow was quite shocking. That whole range is just blanketed in snow, and I think that it's just from this last week.

Tuesday I felt like it was Fall again. I know that fall and spring are analogous seasons, being transitions between the hot and cold ones, but you know spring is always supposed to feel warmer (in comparison to the recent winter). But Tuesday had that burning smell in the air that, at least in my experience, tells me that Halloween is on its way. This was on the way to Japanese, and in an hour and half it was feeling like Nantucket. Which I also associate with fall, 'cause that was the only time I was there. But that wasn't nearly as pleasant an association. But also this day I thought that it was cold like Easter morning is cold, the way late spring still feels like winter but looks like summer.

Wednesday was windy (haha), this very clear cold wind. It felt like one of those late spring days like before, but the one that looks sunny so you go to the beach? It felt like I was at the beach, and it was that uncomfortable cold that makes you wish you hadn't come at all. But the clouds were very high and ...artistic looking. Like they were painted up there. But it was sooooo cold last night, seriously the coldest its been all winter. I would have gone to Megan's apartment to watch Lost, but I doubted I'd survive the journey.

I guess I just really love noticing weather and seasons, since I went through this exact same phase at exactly this same time last year. Although I did already declare that it was spring a few weeks ago. I always seem to be too optimistic about this season. But I do think that it'll get warmer fast. It is Azusa, after all.

Going to brag about school:

Jesus class paper that was due a few days before I turned it in? 90. Same grade as aforementioned Megan, who's a little angry with me. ^^ And only 3 other people in the class got As, too. Also, this class is seriously amazing 'cause he's showing us a movie today and next Tuesday, and cut down our final paper to basically just a list. Love that class.

Japanese midterm on Tuesday? Got 99/100. Better than Sho, the Japanese student. XD I missed a part on the little essay section, because I used "と - to" to connect two adjectives (it only connects nouns), and I should have used "くて - kute," a bit of grammar we haven't learned yet.

And, of course, the week is over for me.

Oh, and also, I think I've finally figured out how to work the potter's wheel. Wednesday started out as a failure day in clay class, where I continued and persisted in failing. But it was one of those things where every time I saw something I could do different next time, and then I finally succeeded! I made a pot! It's the most beautiful thing I've ever made. Because there's so many things that can (and do) go wrong in the process of throwing.....you gotta get the air bubbles outta the clay, you gotta center it freaking *exactly*, you gotta center it MORE, you gotta make sure the hole is straight down the middle, you gotta pull it so the walls don't get too thin.....and you have to do all of this every time, or else even if you do start getting something that looks like a pot, it'll fall down before you're done. Just like everything of mine has done for the past two weeks. But I did it! And I hope I'll continue doing it.

I cleaned my desk the other day, 'cause I couldn't nap. It frees up time to do useful things in. Oh, I don't think I mentioned in the Thursday thing, 'cause last week I seem to have been a little scattered. For Lent I gave up naps. Not a comment on the evilness of naps, just, putting something aside for a while to focus on something else. Like cleaning and doing homework.

Oh, and writing! I wrote some randomness for my nii-chan Goten 'cause he suddenly demanded "six more stories" from me. I got two out, and I'm thinking about the third. They're about a crazy guy named Jensen who lives in this abandoned crazy house. If you want to read them, you can always visit my "writing journal," which should be linked on the side somewhere.

I'll leave you all with this pleasant little video: Bits o' GLASS Muffin!

-Steph

2/22

Happy Thursday!* President's Weekend was a lot of fun! I went back to V-town (as the homeslices call it) and saw all my peeps and whatnot.

Hung out with Carolyn a lot (too much, according to some ^_~) and met some new people who are going to the AX with us in the summer. Hooray AX! It's like the Christmas of the Summer. But anyway, four day weekends are even better than the three day weekends I already get. Because it makes the week three days long.

But I don't remember much about the weekend, it seems. XD We went out to eat at different places...and I know once we were at the mall......and we played some Starcraft/Empire Earth....watched a lot of tv. Like the Tick. And Mulan II. Quite excellent television. 0o Oh, and stuff about killer jellyfish and killer squids. Very educational. Oh, and how stuff is made, like knives and hypodermic needles. I miss tv. At my house it's always one show 24/7 as the different roommates work through the DVD set of whatever show. Right now it's season two of Grey's. And I'm surprised at how many of them I've seen. Like this one, where they set that lady's heart on fire.
Meredith: she was on fire.
someone: I've never seen anything like that
Meredith: she was on fire.
Christina: You've already said that.
Meredith: I know, but she was.

Don't forget to watch it tonight. Just to see her NOT die, 'cause she's the title character and this is happy America.

Hooray for the Office, too. And since I'm not watching it WHILST I write this, I suppose you'll have to live without my minute by minute reactions to it. Hahah, poor you guys.

Oh, but Lost, how about that? What questions were answered? We weren't quite sure. I still don't like Jack, and I didn't like his reaction to the tattoo girl....But I did love Sawyer's reactions to Carl. XD And this new lady? Totally freaks me out.

*Oh, so, today's been a good day, too. It's 2-Penny Thursday. Happy 2-Penny Thursday! Since it's the 22nd, it deserved to be something special. But I didn't know what until I found two pennies! And I've mentioned how hard it is to find change here. So I took it as a sign, and I hope you all had as much prosperity today as I did. And today is also good because I showed up to class (finding one of the pennies along the way) and found out that it was cancelled 'cause she wasn't there! So it was also a 2-Class Thursday, and overall good.

D'you you like the way the new blog looks like? I upgraded from old blogger to new blogger, which makes it more Googled and neat. Like, now you can subscribe to the feed, and also have the option to get these as emails (ironic, huh?). You can do one or both of these things with the tools on the right-hand column over there. Hooray, technology!

-Steph

That's What She Said

Happy Thursday!

Bah! That's not a "bah humbug" sort of bah, that's more like "Bob." It's my new between-moments sound.

I'm at home in V-town for the lovely holiday weekend! Hurrah! And a highly anticipated The Office is on in 20 minutes, although I got a message from the future (seriously, guys) which told me it was intensely hilarious. I have relatives what live in the future, see.

This week was pretty strange, for various reasons. But it was also shortish? Since I have absolutely no reason to wake up tomorrow morning. ^^

Got some writing done this week. Of the fun kind. Working on a short story that has chapter-type things, so that's pretty new. I'm struggling with the idea of plot, related events that form a continuous narrative.

Hahah, I got distracted talking to the folks, and now The Office is on!!!!!!
So I will be further distracted.

PAM! You are an IDIOT. Remember the words of Michael Scott, and DON'T BE ONE.

Oh dear. This ep is fun. But let's continue with Thursday.

Decorated some more pots in clay class. Next up is to make a bowl. I made an alright one yesterday, but I didn't wedge the clay right, so there were air bubbles in it that made a side collapse while I was still throwing it, and I was sad. But next time!

I get to eat a lot of Valentine's candy at my house. Mom gets lotsa presents from the innocent kiddies. Huzzah!

HAHAHAH the Mac commercial again! Yay. Now...to watch Scrubs or Grey's......I guess I go with Grey's. Gotta see that Meredith didn't die and all. Silly kid.

WELL. I suppose that's all. Well, how about that LOST? Yeah Desmond. Read, though, that it was an all-time low for a new episode of the show. All that hype last week didn't carry over, I guess...................Oh Meredith. Don't be an emo.

-Steph

Link to the ...Interwebs

Happy Thursday! I know it is. Happy the week's over! And it wasn't that bad.

Been working on some ceramics pieces, moving them along the process. There's a process! Here, I'll tell you: first you take the clay, and you wedge it, which is like kneading, then you shape it (by hand or "throwing" it on a wheel) and it takes a while to get a good piece throwing if you don't know what you're doing. And then you let it dry. A little. And then you "trim" it, which is taking clay off the sides and bottom to uniform-ize its shape and give it a foot or something on the bottom. And then you can decorate it with stamps or with slips or engobes, which is also clay, but liquid-like, and the engobes are colored. And then you let it dry even more. And then you bisque fire it, and it comes out more like ceramics, and now it's not really clay anymore, but now you glaze it, which is clay and water and silica. And then you let that dry, and then you fire it for real. And THEN you have a piece of ceramics.

So my mug I made on the first day is waiting to be fired. It has star stamps along the side, and a cloud-like line underneath. I painted a glaze that should come out purple-blue into the stars, and put a "wax resist" layer of wax over that. Then I glazed the inside and the outside down to the line with white. The wax will burn off before the glaze ...glazes, so the blue parts won't be white. You can't glaze all the way down to the bottom 'cause it'll melt and run down and permanently attach the piece to the kiln shelf. I'm curious to see how it'll come out. I also have a little bowl type guy waiting for firing, too, but he's mostly a test to see how the "black" glaze comes out. And then my two cylindars, both are trimmed now, and one is stamped and has engobe, and the other is just stamped. I also have a hand-made, "pinched" bowl that's going to wait around until the end of the semester when we're gonna have a "raku" firing, but I'm not sure what that is. That one has a Planism logo stamped in the bottom.

Uuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, in media class this week, I wrote a paper on video projectors. How video projectors enhance our ability to see, how they obsolesce overhead projectors, how they retrieve communal meetings, and how they reverse the ability to communicate. Or something. It's a silly theory by a silly McLuhan guy that all media (basically any technology) enhances, obsolesces, retrieves, and reverses stuff. I think the paper ended up pretty well, considering I wrote it in the hour and a half before clay class yesterday (because I go straight from there to media class). And then in that class, we went to a seminar type thing by another professor on Superman and Neo as "pop culture Messiahs." It was pretty darn interesting. This guy, he edited a book of essays about different superheroes, titled "The Gospel According to Superheroes," or something like that, and I personally borrowed it from him last year to use as a sourse for my Batman speech in Public Comm. It was really interesting, a lot more interesting than media class normally is. Now I want to see the Matrix again.

Also yesterday, for chapel we had a married couple come and tell us about marriage myths that are particularly believed by Christian college students. They were hilarious!!! In a good way. It's really common at our school for kids to get engaged, if not married, before they graduate, so it was something we all could relate to. The lady's challenge to us at the end was to think about the myths and also to graduate before getting married. XD If you want to see it, you can download it here. Because it's Valentine's Day next week, and we all need to hear important stuff like this. XD

Speaking of linking you to things, let me plug some more. Since I'm whistling this song because I changed the window to the apu site and can't hear it at youtube anymore....this. Guy playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the ukulele. It's amazing.

And a Kingdom Hearts fan video, 'cause I really like the song and I think they did a decent job of fitting clips to it.

And finally the Red Stripe commercial that got me hooked in the first place.

AND LOST IS BACK ON. Not currently, just, generally. Did you catch the "review" ep? That was a weird sort of documentary. But neat nonetheless. A little overbearing for me, knowing most/all that stuff, but necessary for those new converts that decided it was time to jump onto the bandwagon. Yay, Lost!

And Office again tonight! Thursdays are great. I heard that Thursday is traditionally the most revered night of television? Like if your show gets slotted on Thursday, you know you've made it? I remember Friends was on Thursday, and I heard that Cheers was, too? I dunno. Maybe hopefully finally Jim and Karen will finally break up. <3 Hopefully. Nyar. Karen. *quietly covers Karen with a pile of dirt*

Hm. I feel like I rambled a lot today. I hope you like your links. Hooray for youtube. OH I thought of another one...

The new Mac ad. Absolutely priceless. Harhar!

See you all next time!

-Steph

Happy February

I mean, Happy Thursday! Hahah, silly me.

It's gotten cold! It rains! But, oddly, it's actually been warmer at night. I think because of the clouds. And I've been going to sleep early, since it's either that or read for homework XD

No, I've been good at doing homework and reading. Real good. Go me.

Hold on, going to dinner. Through the cold cold coldness.

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Back! It wasn't bad. Some sort of fishstick masquerading as a taco, and some potato wedges what smelled like the fair, and some rice plus some orzo, and some potatoes of the mashed sort, and a bread and some canned peaches. Oh, and some mushrooms. Now am I stuffed.

New Office tonight! This week and next week's have already been filmed, but the week after that? While reading the script Jenna Fischer (Pam) apparently yelped in surprise! So I'm the most looking forward to that one. As well as tonight's. Where we hope to see Jim and Karen broken up. Yatta.

Prolly gonna head over to Megan's for poker and Office. Probably maybe Thursdays will be Poker Night from now on? We'll see how this one works out. Just went and asked the gang if Thursday was good for them, and it appears not to be, so maybe we'll have to keep looking to find something better. Wait, I didn't say that. I mean, I didn't mean that there was something better than Thursday. Just to clear that up. So I don't get quoted out of context.

I baked cupcakes this weekend. 'Cause I was watching the Daniel Craig movie Layer Cake, and I was all, yeah, cake sounds good. So it was fun because then I went out and bought cake mix, eggs, milk, oil, frosting, jimmies, cupcake wrappers and cupcake tins. And a case of Dr Pepper, but that wasn't necessary to the cupcakes. Strawberry type. They ended up very very good. Pillsbury type, frosting, too. It was great to have cupcakes, but also bad at the same time, 'cause there was nothing to do but to eat them. It was a love-hate relationship.

Hahah, guys, you have to see this: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/41887627/ A flash animation that's just the funniest thing you'll ever see. It has a hilarious Halloween ep and then a follow up to the actual first ep, too. Just brilliant. The animation and direction are awesome and unique, too. And it's all so very blue.

"Uh, did you know your head is on fire?"
"Excuse me?"
"I said your head. It's on fire."
"Ohhh, haha. I thought you said something racist."

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat else. I've been reading too much for school. Came back from dinner the other day, had nothing to do, so I just sat there and did HOMEWORK. Uagh, it was bad. But yesterday I was tired and bored and didn't want to read, so I sorta cooked, and then read my sitcom writing book.

Oh, sitcom writing book! As soon as I've gleaned it for information, I'm going to develop my NinjaPirateCowboyinaVideoStore story into a pilot. And write a spec script for the Office. And who knows what else!! Oh, spec script, you say? I guess spec is short for speculation. It's a script you write for an existing show, and send it in as an example of what you can do. From Esselstrom I heard you write for a different show than you send it in to, but so far I haven't heard anything like that from this book (which is more recent in the business than Esselstrom is). I think it did say that you want to go somewhere new with it, introduce a new character that could become a regular, or push it towards a new direction. Stuff to show your creativity?

Hehe, one day I'll be a tv writer~

Ah! I gotta go get my laundry. Like 45 minutes ago. I'll see ya next week!!

-Steph