Dinner with the relatives

Actually, refreshing compared to coffee hour with the churchgoers. As usual, I went to the house of Denisen and Jay for Easter dinner. My father was sick and couldn't come, but I went with Karin and my mother and my grandmother. Katie was there, being the cute baby yet again. Karin and I had our annual egg hunt, this time without me losing anything. (I don't know if Jay will ever let me get over my losing that egg down his heating vent.)

I suppose I like going to Denisen's because there are new faces...she and Jay usually invite some of their friends as well, so it's not just family. Tonight I talked to Kim, this psychologist for a while. He said his son had been in the same program as me at UCB and had fun. I think he thought that since I'm taking psych, it means I plan to go into that field, so I had to explain to him that I was planning to major in astronomy...not psychology. He may have been a bit disappointed, but at least I'm interesting in his field. The rest of the time, I was at the same table as Elisabeth, Chris, and Ian. We called ourselves the immature table, since while everyone else discussed Enron and such, we asked Chris about the bloodiest scenes he had encountered as a paramedic. (Woman talking on cell phone, eating take-out Chinese and driving on 280. Crashes into center divider. Intestines coming out. "Like chow mein!" Elisabeth comments.)
22:58

Suddenly, though

everyone seems to be full of unnecessary advice. A few choice bits:

Mother: These all look like great schools! I wish I could go back to college. (We always knew that.)
Meredith: Guess what? You've gotten a college letter, haven't you? Oh, don't go there...
Matt (Tamen): You should go to Berkeley. UofC's physics program is really hard. My brother has a BS in math, and he failed out of their physics class in his first year.
Max's mom: [insert drivel here]
Karin [in authoritative voice]: You know, the decision of where to go to college will affect the rest of your life...

I heard this all when I got into high school, and though I suppose this decision is a little larger, I stand by my philosophy that anything can affect the rest of my life.
13:28

Now I remember

..why I only go to church twice a year. Because I can't stand socializing with the people there. Since it's Easter, I had to show up, and I guess I do sort of like singing hymns and stuff, but really, the idea of organized religion gets on my nerves. I'd be fine if we could sit around and sing the whole time. (Anyone know of any churches where they do that?) Or if I didn't ever have to go, but then when I show up at long last after months of not having come, I have to go through all the people chiding me for working, or those who say every single time "I remember you when you were this big" as if that was the last time they saw me, when in fact the last time I was pretty much the same height as I am now. It's not like I was baptized, then never came to church again until I was 17. I actually attended every week until I was 15, but then had to start working instead. Keeping track of everyone is a pain...I feel shallow when I talk to them, like I'm having the same conversation over and over, or like I'm trying to keep up appearances. There are only a few people with whom I can hold a decent discussion, like Mary, Elsa, Paul, and a couple others. The rest of the time I spend avoiding a select few such as Maxwell's mother, and listening to my own mother talk about how wonderful I am, as mothers do.

That is what happened today. I sat down and had some fruit salad during coffee hour. My mother came across some old friends and started telling them all about my college applications. I overheard "marvellous" and "wonderful" and "hair loss" before I stopped eavesdropping. Then she dragged me over to talk to the woman's son, who evidently lives down the hall from Emily Hagerman at the University of Colorado, and so we exchanged a few words before settling back into listening to our mothers converse some more. Meanwhile, Max's mother ran into me and made me tell her where I had applied so she could make comments on every school as if I truly cared where her relatives had gone to school.

Forgive me for sounding cold, but seriously, the mix of Pacific Heights mothers crooning about their babies, and then people who have been attending church forever...it gets to me after five minutes or less.
13:17

A fat envelope at last

Guess who got accepted to University of Chicago?

That's right folks. That would be me.
21:00

God hates logistics

I rolled out of bed and onto the subway today. I had made plans to go to a 1:10 movie with Meredith, and I was worried about not making it on time after our conversation yesterday. (You know, I can't do anything about the fact that I don't know whether or not I've gotten into any colleges, and my whole month revolves around that assumption, so I can't say for sure if I'll be able to make a meeting at any time. Don't hate me for it.)

We saw the re-release of E.T., which was good. I hardly noticed the substitution of walkie-talkies for rifles or whatever all that talk was about. I really don't remember the movie that well, even though I own the video and have seen it several times before. I just recall that when I was five, I thought it was the second-saddest movie ever (first being The Brave Little Toaster) and every time I saw it, I hid behind the couch when they packed E.T. into the ice thing. I really need to learn not to cry during movies, though. I saw K-Pax on video yesterday, and thought it was equally sad.

Bah.
19:07

Side note

Not that anyone cares who I roleplay, but I've added a link on the side documenting my characters.
00:47

Boredom again

So I convinced Karin to go to the Legion of Honor just in time to get a ride to the Coronet, where I eagerly awaited the preview for The Two Towers. I also caught a glimpse of Attack of the Clones, which looks horrible, but being myself, I'll probably see it several times. Too much soap-operaesque "But Obi-Wan doesn't want me falling in love!" and smoochy-with-the-queen to make me happy. But still, it's something to do in May, other than take AP tests.

So the real deal, what were my reactions to the TTT preview? Well, let me first say that Eowyn rocks my pants. She was my favorite character in the books, and I wish she hadn't married Faramir at the end, because he's just sucky, but I'm glad to see she has something of a role in the next two movies. However, I really didn't like Liv Tyler in FOTR, so why introduce unnecessary plot amendments again in order to make her role bigger? She should just sit there and look pretty and have her thing with Aragorn. That's all. Forgive me for being chauvinistic, but the less I see of Liv, the happier I'll be. Anyway, I do sort of wish they wouldn't spoil Eowyn's role in ROTK by having her fight at Helm's Deep, but still. Her swordplay better be damn good.

And...what else...they really did not show enough of Gollum and Treebeard, though the shots of Gollum that they did have were good. "Thieves!" I don't really want to see the dead in the marshes, so I guess they're allowed to leave that out, but everything else I really want to see, especially
1. The wrath of the Ents at Isengard.
2. The arguments among orcs and uruk-hai.
3. Gollum, Gollum, and more Gollum.

All else I may be able to wait for a few months. I'm still deciding on Brad Dourif. You see, I can't decide whether or not I like him very much. Grima bugs the hell out of me, but Mr. Dourif was good as Saavedro in Myst III. But I didn't like him on X-Files, Beyond the Sea. So we shall see, yes. I will not pass judgment quite yet.

On last night's Survivor: ROB MUST DIE. They should not have voted Gabe off because he rocks despite his idealism. ROB MUST DIE.

Side note:

Eowyn If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Eowyn, Woman of Rohan, niece of King Theoden and sister of Eomer. In the movie, I am played by Miranda Otto. Who would you be? Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test with Perseus Web Survey Software

20:21

Bah humbugs

Journalcon 2002 is coming to San Francisco. Now as if it weren't enough that I always miss these things or they're out of town, here's one that's in my city, but I might be moving.

Let's hear it for college letters coming next week, eh? Everyone else seems to have heard, or decided, by now. Meredith has gotten her acceptance letters and will choose between two places soon. Andrea keeps getting more and more Yes letters. Everyone at school seems to get boxes every day. And then Julia asks me if all I had applied to were private schools. I thought about it for a second, then realized that yes, I had, since I really didn't have to apply to Berkeley.

The wait is killing me. At least I know that if I go to Berkeley next year, I can go to this damn event.
22:40

survey

haven't taken one of these in a while. Stolen from Lauren.

nine things you wear daily:
1. underwear (one would hope so)
2. glasses
3. nail polish
4. silver chain necklace
5. rings: silver, copper, and my class ring
6. hair tie
7. watch
8. moisturizer? Okay, I'm reaching here...
9. I've got it! I forgot my shirt.

eight movies you'd watch over and over:
1. The Sound of Music. Already have the thing memorized.
2. Lord of the Rings. Going again to see it tomorrow because I feel that if the movie I've seen most in the theaters (Star Wars Episode 1) sucks, I should replace it with something more worthwhile.
3. Rushmore
4. Contact, even though it's longer than it should be.
5. The Land Before Time 1. No comment.
6. High Fidelity
7. The Matrix. Gah.
8. Tremors. Please don't judge me by my moviegoing preferences. I know they suck.

seven albums that matter:
1. Radiohead - Amnesiac and Airbag EP. I am a cheater.
2. R.E.M. - Automatic For the People
3. Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
4. The Gloria Record - s/t
5. The Beatles - Abbey Road
6. Super Furry Animals - Radiator
7. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump

six objects you touch every day:
1. my bed
2. a can of Coke.
3. Chaz's mouse
4. a spoon...mm....cereal
5. stereo power button

five things you do every day:
1. think.
2. update webpage.
3. eat stuff.
4. brush my teeth.
5. whine.

four bands that you couldn't live without:
1. Radiohead
2. Sparklehorse
3. REM
4. The Beatles

three of your favorite songs at this moment:
1. Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here"
2. U2, "New York"
3. Death Cab For Cutie, "President of What?"

two people that have influenced your life the most:
1. My father
2. Carl Sagan

one thing you could spend the rest of your life with:
1. Chaz. :)
22:31

Spring Break, parte dos

Sunday: Parents and Karin whisked me out of Modesto and we began driving down I-5 to Bakersfield, where I spotted Buck Owens' Crystal Palace, among other landmarks of Central CA. I pouted for miles on end about having to miss the Oscars, which I later hear were boring. We stopped at a roadside barbeque place in Olancha, which is next to the Sierra escarpment and also in the middle of the Mojave. It was pretty cold, but their sandwiches were good. By this time, it was dark, so we drove the remaining 200 miles in the dark. Finally we reached the Furnace Creek Ranch, where instead of having a double room for myself, I had to share it with my crazy family. (I was so spoiled. I should have known the comfort would never last. I have never had my own double bed in a hotel before, and probably never will again.) After watching the last 20 seconds of Ron Howard's acceptance speech, moping about Ian McKellan's lack of an award, and generally being bitchy for a bit, I spend the night being kicked out of bed by my sister.

Monday: In the morning we drove to Zabriskie Point, a short bit away from the hotel. I took some pictures there which I have yet to edit, but I will post all my Valley photos probably tomorrow. After the point, we drove to Dante's View, the famous view of the valley overlooking various salt flats and the lowest elevation. The afternoon was spent at the sand dunes, and then we went to Stovepipe Wells for dinner. In the gift shop there, I found a copy of the ring I had lamented losing. The very same ring I got in Ferndale. So it seems that it's available in two places, two which couldn't be more different.

Tuesday: To Badwater to see lowest land elevation in western hemisphere (-282 feet.) Observed snails in salty pool. Left because it was too hot there. In the afternoon, we drove to see Salt Creek, actual flowing water in the valley, home of the desert pupfish whose evolution is so admired in biology textbooks nationwide. Later that day, we drove to Beatty, NV, which I would have to say is an armpit of a town, far worse than the ghost town of Rhyolite a few miles away. I loved Rhyolite, and thus took a lot of pictures of the weird things they had going on. I felt like it was right out of an X-File.

Wednesday: Drove back. 11 hours in the car with Agatha Christie to keep me company. The end.
19:17

I am so happy I don't have to do this.

USAD 2002-2003 Curriculum Intro

Oceanography? Romantic music? I came and left at the right time. I do sort of wish I could do it again, or that I had been on the team in the past, but then I think of how dysfunctional they were. And stuff.

muzak: Hooverphonic, "Inhaler"
18:12

Rumors corrected

Alex tells me that whatever Paul did wasn't what I said he did. And whatever the consequences were, they did not involve being shut down.

Thanks Alex.
17:59

Let us shed a tear for what might have been

It's finally happened. Chickclick has shut down once and for all.

I quit moderating their boards after sophomore year, but I've followed some of my old friends' doings since then. After the third splitting-off when Maureen turned into an evil dictator or whatever, and most of the mods from my time also quit. So now Snowball's run out of money and shut down what was probably the only worthwhile venture of theirs. I wonder how many of the CC affiliates will now shut down also for lack of traffic. (I hope not Hissyfit et al., because those are arguably the best ones.)
14:58

Operation Molesto

a.k.a. my experiences at the California Academic Decathlon

Thursday: Woke up, took a shower, and packed frantically. Diane and Yonathan arrived early while I was still finding things that I forgot, waiting for my nail polish to dry, and trying hard not to forget everything I had learned in the past few months. I scrambled to close my door so they could not witness the nuclear war zone that is my bedroom, yet Diane was curious. I still need to clean it. Anyway, the set time to leave was 12:30 but we left 45 minutes late mostly due to Edelman's inability to arrive on time with calculators. So I had a fun time trying to steer the loud conversation away from drugs and on to less offensive things in case my parents were listening. Instead it was "let's make fun of Kate for her Survivor calendar." Truly joyous. We finally left. I was in Gus's mom's car with him and Yonathan and Diane, which made for a lovely little piece of hell, especially when we listened to the dog mauling verdicts on the radio, something Diane had many opinions about which she wanted to express vehemently, and the driver disagreed. Once in Modesto, we tried to check into Best Western, yet Edelman's car had not yet arrived. We idled around the vending machines which proceeded to give us money, found out that there were other teams in our hotel, and other such delinquent activities. Oh right, and we were right across the street from the office of Gary Condit.

We finally got one key to one room and immediately after we sat down, the noisier part of the team arrived. We played a rousing game of Monopoly (which bored me, so I donated all my $2000 to the free parking fund, thus ending the game when Ben landed there.) By 7, Nance and Joyce has still not arrived, and Edelman was starting to get pissed at Mrs. Yuan, so we went out to Modesto's version of Chinese food, a restaurant which, as Diane put it, did not have egg flower in its egg flower soup. I could have had dinner without hearing graphic descriptions of sex and nasty gossip about absent teammates, I really could have.

(Nance and Joyce finally arrived at 10pm.)

Friday: Up at the crack of dawn to Modesto's NPR station. Managed to spill milk on my lap twice during breakfast, causing rest of team to laugh at me. On the way to the hotel, Edelman told me that I couldn't wear my sweatshirt inside, which turned out to be true since it had a hood, so I had to suffer the cold in my tank top through eight hours of testing. I made friends with the people around me: Tatiana from MAD (Marina Aca-deca, with six different team shirts. We had none.), who was also in my hotel, Brian from Calaveras whose tri-county area had less than 5000, and nameless guy from Santa Barbara. The tests were pretty much okay except the essay. The literature question had a major typo (Arthur Jarvis instead of James Jarvis) which made it impossible to answer, and a lot of people didn't catch the error and wrote the way they thought it should be. Fortunately, I had been planning to write about the internet anyway. The science test also had errors, but they made an addendum to correct for those.

I spent the rest of Friday playing games and occasionally practicing my speech. This is when the team began to show its dysfunction, with a few unnamed members going upstairs to "play Monopoly" (smoke) and they wanted me to come along. I bailed and hung out with the others downstairs. It turned into a whine session with Edelman, and we kept having these nasty urges to leave the others behind and go to dinner. They showed up and we instead went to the Ice Cream Antisocial, not bearing gifties for everyone else. I sat behind a table and gave out ice cubes, representing the cold hearts of San Franciscans. The Bakersfield team made fun of me. After the social, we tried to find a good place for dinner. Toly wanted the Indian place because of the belly dancing, but it looked crummy, so we split up. I mused about senioritis and college over veggie burgers at this cafe that Edelman decided was the greatest thing since sliced bread. After dinner: more games of Set, a bit of speeches.

Saturday: In the morning, I had this brilliant plan while playing Set that it could be motivation for studying Superquiz, the edutainment that the damn packet praises so much. So each time a person got a set, everyone else had to come up with facts about the internet. Later that day, we lost Nance and Joyce yet again on the way to the bus to the high school. The speeches and interviews were pretty good; mine went off without a hitch, other than my interview panel making fun of me to my face about my activities. (They got a kick out of my XF club presidency.) Diane talked about feeding dead people to the impoverished in her impromptu and adopted murderers in her prepared speech. I wonder how the Respectable Republicans of Modesto took that.

Just as I was about to give my interview, Jonah and Dario sauntered down the hallway. "Jonah!" I exclaimed. "Yonathan just went to impersonate you for your speech." Not that it counted, but I'm sure it would be considered Very Bad. Later we all did Superquiz, and after Scholastic we were tied with El Camino for second overall. (Ben got 9 and I got 8. Our Varsity team had gotten 8 and 8.) It was very exciting. To be tied with the best team in the state! However, the honors people did not do as well, and so we dropped down in the standings. Nice while it lasted, anyway. We had a bit of an argument yet again after that, and returned to the hotel somewhat annoyed at each other. (That is, after Edelman got lost on the way back, driving us 10 miles out of town before we realized we weren't in Modesto anymore.) Back at the ranch, Diane and I went in the hot tub, and most of the guys joined us. The pool was freezing, but we went in to dive for various sets of glasses that got thrown in. Altogether a festive party. The whole team and all attached parental units and other people went out to dinner at a buffet place, and when we got back, everyone except Ben, Hasan, Gus and me went to tge Truly Gala Affair at the jail-like high school. Gus and I watched the end of a few movies, the Singer-Songwriter Collection Infomercial, the Talking Heads' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and surfed through various things until everyone else got back, upon which we played more Set and Monopoly until we came to a draw at 3am.

Sunday: Found out my parents had been in Modesto since the previous night. Went to the team breakfast at some ungodly hour. Finally the awards. My teammates got a few medals: Econ and interview for Ben, econ and math for Toly, Math and music for Joyce, Speech for Nance, and then I got a bronze for my essay and finally I achieved my goal: a gold in science (it turned out I got 2nd in the state! All the other science winners in state were male...). I also got the team high score and a bronze for overall individual score. I just checked all the scores and it turned out we just barely beat Oakdale by under 50 points to get third in Division 2. I'm so proud of my teammates for overcoming dysfunction and in certain cases, lack of humanity, to get this far. Hope they do it again next year or even do better.

Edelman said I could come to Modesto again next year. Watch out.

Four pictures:
Team getting award
Team holding shiny trophy
Team outside with support
Me with shiny medals
21:46

Coincidences

Tuesday in calc class:
Me: Mr. Bettencourt, how old are you?
Mr. B: Ancient.
Nancy: Back in his day, they didn't have fancy gadgets like your calculator. They had to calculate infinite sums using an abacus.
Me: Nah, those weren't invented yet. They had to count grains of sand.
Nancy: Oh come on. Gnomes don't live that long.
Me: How do you know? Is it in your guidebook to gnomes?

Wednesday in English, on a worksheet:
Example of a comparison of numbers: Trolls live 200 years, about half as long as gnomes and twice as long as hobbits.

Wednesday in Psych:
Prof: Here's an example of a problem you can use an algorithm to solve. Normally it's called "The Cannibals and the Missionaries", but I prefer calling it "The Hobbits and the Orcs". In this case, you want everyone on the boat to live a long time. You don't want your orcs to eat your hobbits...

What is with fantasy creatures recently?
00:23

The search for a domain continues...

And I find out, finally, what I have been wondering my whole life. Is there a radio station KLFM? If so, where and what is it? So I type in klfm.com, since Yahoo domains says it's been registered. Turns out my initials are the call letters for KLFM, 92.9: Oldies, Central Montana. My life is complete. Meanwhile, shni.com is a health/fitness portal for the UK. Becca will be delighted. Let me include a new list of possible names:

abscission.net (currently the reader favorite with a whopping two votes.)
katran.com (1)
kewliezzz.com (0?? Come on now. This is so obviously the best, unless you've never experienced the true meaning of ~*~kEwLiEzZz~*~ before.)
and my new personal favorite discovery
greenishfinger.com

I've discovered that the evil empire of register.com has taken hellatight.com captive and wants me to bid on it. Companies should not be allowed to do this. I wish I could write a superquiz essay about how evil this domain-snatching is.
23:53

Ah, the places they'll go

Okay, I will be out of town until the 27th. I will make sure to do back-updates once I return, but for now, here are my plans:
Thursday: Leave for Modesto. Academic Decathalon state tournament. Hope to get some sort of awards and not fail music portion. Goal: Beat Anatoly.
Sunday: Leave Modesto for Death Valley. Hope I get to hotel in time to watch Oscars.
Wednesday: Leave Death Valley for SF.

Today I spent an unholy amount of time in educational institutions, approximately 15 hours. The latter part of the evening I spent with Nance, Joyce, Gus, and Yonathan, and we sort of sat around and gossiped without studying much at all. Probably slightly more effective than staying at home, where I would not have had a book open in front of me at all. However, the dinner would have beat chicken pesto pizza and Pepsi, I suppose.

I returned home to watch Survivor. Finally my day has come. I have hoped and prayed (well, sort of) that Sarah would leave, and today her time was up. However, now the new Rotu tribe is twice as large as Maraamu, which seems slightly unfair. Halfway through the episode I decided that Sarah did not deserve to leave as much as Rob.

Ah yes, Rob. I cannot stand that man. The way he described each of his new teammates. The way he expects Tammy to wait upon him. The way he has this whole alpha male thing planned out, yet doesn't want to do any work at all. I just want to hurl a rotting coconut at him sometimes. In fact, all the time.
22:14

TV funhouse

I've finally seen the coverage of the aca-deca local competition. I'm the only competing member never shown. (They have shots of the varsity and honors rooms, showing Hasan, Gus, Jonah, Nance, Joyce, and Diane, and then pictures of Ben and Anatoly getting medals, but me? Left out. However, I've entirely unphotogenic. All's well that ends well.) So I've missed yet another chance to talk to TV people. (Glitzy media=SFUSD channel?) Of course, everything they showed completely downplayed Lowell's winning; they glorified Lincoln's superquiz victory by spending most of the time with that event, and then briefly flashing the scores for the whole day at the end. Glory I will never receive. Oh well.

I'm pissed at Paul right now. Why? He used the $http_utils to hack into someone's server and now they might shut Null down, which would royally suck. Stupid Paul. Why can't he ever think before doing stupid things?
22:36

High wire acrobat

This is fun.

It is the height of the age of the south wind. You are reborn as a high wire acrobat in a travelling circus. The circus strong man is your lover. One of the midgets is engaged to another midget. However he is wealthy with inherited money and is obviously taken with you.

Your lover suggests that you play up to the midget and take him for his money. You are repelled by the midget and the other freaks in the circus but you like money. Will you politely tell the midget that you are not interested or will you play up to him?

Tell the midget you are not interested
Play up to him.

As I said...nothing better than the reincarnation game.


22:01

I've got nothing to say but it's okay

I got a Thick Package today. However, it was not real news; it was Berkeley asking me if I were to attend next year, where would I like to live? So I've been having fun with that packet for the last hour. Where would I like to live? Do I like soviet-looking cement blocks with nice views close to the action, or do I prefer nice dorms that are diagonally across campus from anything worthwhile, but also conveniently placed for math/science classes? Do I want a residential hall or a suite? Double or triple room? Choice, choices. I don't even know if I'll be attending this school, but I'm most familiar with it, and everyone else gets their own thick packages. I want to have one of my own.
21:28

I couldn't have put it into better words myself

The folks down at mirrorshades have done an excellent job compiling this list of things that suck online. They read my mind. Especially "Comic Sans MS". Could there be an uglier font? If I ever see an ugly baby, I shall dub it Comic Sans MS.

I had a hell of a time with the physics test earlier. Quoth Devin: "Was it just me, or was that test impossible?" Me: "I was thinking the same thing, except I gave up ten minutes earlier than everyone else." I mean, I actually filled in all the answers, but checking would have been a complete waste of time. He really shouldn't give us pop tests when he says we have a choice on when to take them. Meanwhile, as I sat in the lab this afternoon, everyone from the other class was sharing answers and such. I guess honesty and high standards of ethics get one nowhere in life.
15:14

Back to the future

I've gone back to dates in Finnish. For obvious reasons.
23:42

Summer plans, part the third

There are a billion things I'd like to do. Such as go to New Zealand. And I'm so horrible at planning trips, so that may be a better option than going to Europe. It's cheaper, too. Don't tell certain people or I might not have a very long life expectancy. (A few hours at the most, maybe.)
22:38

.plan

[x] Econ homework
[x] First RP as Breelander
[ ] Letter to camp dude
[ ] Practice speech

I'm not terribly accomplished this evening, am I? I need to learn to focus. For real.
22:34

Hum-V limo

It's amazing how little my mother expects of me now. I'm going to have to try being rebellious more often. I get a call this afternoon from her and she asks me, "Are you still in school?"
"What do you mean?" I reply.
"Well, you haven't been expelled or anything?"
I laugh. "If they expelled me for presenting a petition, there'd be hell to pay."

So I gave 382 signatures to Matt to present to the site council. The Blue Ribbon guy from Texas was at school -- Xi was leading him around all day. So that meant that they had to appear somewhat organized and not like they were going to bite each others' heads off at the council. Anyway, someone may have taken note of the students this time. Evident they've appointed a committee. Ah, yes, bureaucracy as a way of life. I love it when it's happening to someone else.

In other news, I got a Thin Letter from MIT today, which is fine, as I wasn't expecting to get in anyway, so I might as well get the fuel for the bonfire now rather than closer to my birthday. Everyone's getting their UC letters, and I want one too. So I think someday this week I'll squeal and wave the letter I got from Berkeley last year and hope no one remembers. Then people will freak out, thinking this means they didn't get in even though the acceptances don't come out until next Friday. It'll be Hilarious. (Except not really, because I'd get clobbered when they realized what happened.)

muzak: The Fugees, "No Woman No Cry"
22:05

You know, they're huge rafts

We had half the normal number of staff people and twice as many visitors today. Not a fun situation. I had to sit at drawing board for two hours, and by the time the day was over, I was telling Shawn that I perceived we had more than the usual number of stupid children today. He told me they must have really been getting to me, because it was the first time he had ever heard me say something negative about a visitor other than Uncle Fester. Well, it may have been true, but seriously. This bunch of kids I saw today never listened to anything I said. I'd say "Now don't touch the board, because if you do, your drawing might get messed up." And then they'd touch it and whine to me and ask me if they could do another, because it got messed up. Well, what did I just tell you? The parents even acknowledged their progeny's lack of brilliance.

Otherwise I had a pretty good day. Mostly because all the coworkers that bug me weren't at work today. Wow, I'm such a positive person.

The search for intelligent things to do this summer continues. I'm still applying for that job. Meanwhile, I hope I'll be travelling at some point and I suppose I can just do my current job the rest of the time. They'll be happy to have me, I'm sure, considering they practically dropped dead when I said that I may not be working this summer. Besides, I want to see Alan, the French dude with the sexy voice who's going to be our exchange student of the summer.

Yes, kids, I am shallow.
20:04

Playing you now

Okay, so I am finally getting a better hosting service. Paul is good for something after all. I was complaining about my server's lack of ability to tell me whether or not it supports PHP (evidently it doesn't, so...) and he guided me to his own, nice n' cheap hosting service which will give me all that I need plus a domain name for only $50 a year. Now I'm going crazy trying to think of a good name.

Readers, I need your input. Which of these names doesn't suck?
abscission.net
katran.com
kewliezzz.com
inabottle.org
darkecho.net (I know it's odd, but it's the translation of my elvish pseudonym, so...)
?
18:36

We meet again

I went to go see the play at school tonight. Or rather, I served my duty as a box office slave and then went and watched the rest of the play. It was good to the point where the ceiling did not fall down, unlike last night. I'm sure Karin winced at that part.

Bah, I dislike this. I still want to RP on Elendor, yet the few members of my culture who are ever on always ignore me. I asked how I could get a job, and they referred me yet again to the help files, which only list possible jobs, rather than tell me how I can get one. So then I ask a more specific question and now there's people on the Bree channel having a grand old chat. Of course, none of them can help me, because one's a Ranger and the other one's from Gondor. Blah.
23:19

I am rockin.

I had a Close Encounter of the Dentist Kind this morning. Since when is it cute to have appointments on Saturday mornings when everyone should be asleep, including the dentist? Anyway, I came home, sat around waiting for Karin and her noisy company to go off to Sonoma. (It was bothersome hearing Leci describe in great detail, really fast, her "boyfriend", who, of course, is Billy Boyd. In a fake Scottish accent.)

All afternoon I've been attempting to do trivia really fast. You can see how productive I am when I'm alone, eh?
17:06

NameNerds.com!

Namenerds

Because we already knew I was a total dork when it came to names, right? Further proof, that I am surfing this paging at midnight.
00:11

Dying by end of life

Katharin-

Are you interested in participating in research?
Do you still need 2 RPP credits?

If you can answer yes to all of the following questions, you fit the
criteria to participate in my research. If you can't answer yes to all
but are still interested, e-mail me back and I will pass your name on
to another graduate student who is doing similar research this
semester (also 2 RPP credits).

Are you, your mother, your father, and all your (full) siblings right
handed?

Have you experienced the loss of a close loved one by death?

No, I just happened to lose a loved one somewhere in my closet. In fact, he may still be in there, but I couldn't page him.
23:56

Time better spent

I've managed to waste this whole eveing while my parents and Karin went to go see The Crucible at school, which I'll see tomorrow night as I act as usher and ticket agent, doing my wonderful shield-and-scrolly duties. What have I been doing? Well, it's funny, because I really wanted to roleplay, something which I haven't done in forever, but since WoD is mostly dead, and we don't RP on Null, I went on Elendor, but when I joined, I didn't realize my culture (Bree) was so inactive. I should have joined Haradrim or Gondor, I know it. But anyway, I've gotten all desced and +history-ed, so I guess I just have to be Catran Cutbough, woodsman's daughter, who has yet to find a job in Bree Proper. Maybe someday I'll actually get to play her. Tonight I hung out watching the fast-forward that was happening, listening to people talk about guns on the public channel, reading old logs from cultures that aren't mine, and other useless things.
23:21

He thinks it's all about culture and art

Wow, I've talked to a lot of Old People online recently. I saw Brandon (no big surprise, really, it's just that I thought he hated me by association) and Elli (Elli!) last week when I happened to log onto WoD. Then tonight by the suggestion of Dave I went to CyanChat, where I haven't been in a while, and who should be there but Eri. And for the first time in so long, we held a decent conversation. She's probably forgotten that we used to very much dislike each other. Anyway, we started chatting when she mentioned that she had gotten most of a tattoo and then showed me a picture. It's actually pretty cool. And then we talked about various things, like Druidry, Tolkien, and WoD oldbies for a while before we just sort of idled off. But I'm glad that finally she perceives me as more than just a child. It's only taken four years.

Unfortunately, things are not looking up in the world of school. I think I got a referral today from Hill for the usual status crime of existing in an overcrowded school that doesn't bother to provide places for its students to exist during the free time given to them for the reason that the school doesn't have enough classrooms. But anyway, I won't go into that. I'd rather talk about my first Venture Into Rebelliousness. I was at my locker with Diane and Anh and we weren't really talking, just being there. I was on the lookout because Hill was at the other end of the hall harrassing students standing in line to buy tickets for Mystery Night. (Funny how the school bothers people wanting to attend its own events.) So right when we were being silent, he comes us to up and starts yelling at us to get out of the hallway, telling us how disrespectful we're being, etc. So on that account, I have to start arguing back, quietly, but I'm only defending myself. So he stalks off, threatening to write us up. I'm not sure if he did that, but Hodges came by in a few minutes and started forcefully removing anyone who even dared to pause at their locker during passing time. I went to collect more signatures and whine to the newspaper staff, but really. I heard that yesterday someone got taken to the dean for sitting in the hall, and then the dean called her parents and told her that next time she did so, she'd be suspended. Doesn't that seem a bit extreme? People lie, cheat and steal and never so much as get questioned for it, and then for sitting in the usual place quietly and refusing to move, one can get suspended. I wonder if that would make a decent argument at least against arbitrary punishment.

muzak: Sarah Slean, "Climbing Up The Walls"
23:10

Hunting for little things in corners

I want to do this.

Would someone get me a GPS thingamabob for graduation? Pretty please?
21:16

When I had nobody to call my own

Signature count: 362

One more week until I go off to beautiful Modesto to compete. Yes, folks, this is my spring break, a dork convention in nowhereville. I'm a little worried that no one's been studying and that we're going to be embarrassed on how badly we do. I took a literature practice test today and managed to get 820 on it, and I'm not worried about science or econ, more about my speech (again) and art. Ah yes, art. Lawrence claims he can't find the packet with the color pictures that I lent him, so thanks a lot. (We've also voted that Yon is our favorite alternate and thusly gets the only empty car seat for the trip. I don't want to hear Lawrence talk about nasty things the whole time.)

I am annoyed with Alisa for reasons I shall not mention here. Same with Julia Baron. I've gotten over her suing Michael. Now I just want her to take a really long vacation to someplace far away. She came and led a discussion in English today and managed to drive me crazy every time. "Does anyone have anything to say about this paragraph? Anyone? Come on you guys. What about the first sentence; don't you think he's trying to appeal to..."

Third person of the day who's bothering me, actually the first chronologically to do so: Dr. Hell...er..Hill. In a loud booming voice this morning as I walked into school, he says, "Hello, Katharine!" but in a sort of threatening tone, as if he disapproves of my very presence in the hall and would like to have me expelled. Maybe I'm just paranoid and he was trying to exercise his nonexistent social skills, but however it is, it didn't make me happy. Later in the day I was standing with Andrea at her locker, and he was glaring down the hall, and I perceived that it was directly toward me and not the obnoxious sophomores nearby. Sauron is always mentioned as having a "long arm", figuratively, but Dr. Hill I think has a long glare.
22:18

Summer employment

On a side note, I may work at, of all things, music camp as a counselor this summer. It's only two weeks, and in beautiful Healdsburg. It pays pretty well. I suppose if I ever want to work at Space Camp, I'll need a bit of experience as a counselor somewhere else. I've worked with kids a lot before, and it's a break from my current coworkers, which is always good.
22:19

Something is weird in my browser

Signature count=254.

Okay, you know what sucks? The Maraamu Tribe. They made a huge mistake in, well, losing the last five challenges. But that couldn't be helped, because they all just bicker and quarrel, and now they've gone and lost a third person. The other team is so obviously superior and they are much better team players. But now Maraamu has voted off Hunter, and he said it best himself, "I'll let Red Cross know where you guys are so when you start starving, they can go rescue you." Why, oh why, did the unstupid players join the alliance against him? They totally should have voted against Sarah, because she's just an accident waiting to happen. Now the only competent players are Vecepia and Gina, and I'm not sure how long they'll last with their screw-up tribemates. CBS should do something quickly.

Ahem.

The Supreme Court actually decided on a case that was about whether tomatoes are vegetables or fruit. I have nothing more to say on politics for now.

In other news, I've become a popular model for photographs. Diane used me as her subject today because she needed shots for her class. So now there's shots of me balancing various objects [bottles, oranges, flowers, coins] and looking meditative or dead. Karin took a few pictures of me when she figured out how to plug the camera into the computer, so now I have a lovely little photo of me lovingly titled "Curl that lip, Kate-o!" by my dear sister.

I'm having a lot of fun in calculus now, in a sick sort of way.The people are amusing. We got nothing at all done today since we had class in the Meyer since Tommaney's class moved into our room because she had construction in hers. So we all sat around the conference table trying to work and instead discussed what we'd be doing over the summer. Xi's now a hostess at Pasta Pomodoro down on Irving, so I'll have to go eat there sometime when she's working. She's not a bad person when she's not being an evil Shield and Scroll dictator, I suppose.

muzak: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, "Face Like Summer" (so I can't understand Welsh...so what?)
22:14

Here we go, here we goweohweoh.

I played glorified ambulance chaser today when I walked down the hallways following DaRosa and Schmidt as they kicked people out. As soon as they passed, I would go to the now-standing people and ask them to sign my petition. In that way we got about 40 new names. I have 133 in my hand, and 4 more sheets are in circulation or will be delivered to me tomorrow. Yvonne says she has two pages worth, and there's another in the journ room somewhere, and two in the hands of Karin's friends. Tomorrow I'll have more.

I procrastinated all afternoon since I had no meeting, yet somehow I turned out fove pages of a fanfic involving, of all things, a crossover that includes Survivor. Don't even ask. When I revise it, I may post it, in which case you can read it, but first i have to determine whether it's even remotely humorous or if it's just stupid.

I don't like the way Ms. Ow has no expectations for our class. Today she tells us "If you get a rejection letter from a school...I mean, when you get a rejection letter..." as if she knows absolutely that we won't get into our top schools. I'm not expecting to, but those are over my head anyway. I could have possibly applied to somewhere that I have a chance. She shouldn't assume these things.

muzak: Bitesize, "Sugar Car"
21:47

I should not have to question

the pointfulness of this page.

There should not be a webpage dedicated to Riemann sums. It's just sacrilege.
16:58

He is the very embodiment of manliness

This does not describe the guy who runs Bart.

I got on the train at Glen Park at 2:02. It took until 3:15 to get there. I sat in the tunnel between Glen Park and 24th Street for 40 minutes! I mean, as absorbed in my book as I was, it still didn't make up for the fact that I was half an hour late for class. Meanwhile, the Bart dude kept walking back and forth like a pendulum, and the lady on the intercom reminded us that we'd be starting again shortly every three minutes. I wonder what her definition of 'shortly' was.

After class, a wonderful little lecture on creativity, I took a PITAS (pain in the ass survey) as part of my RPP requirement. This one was even worse than the one I took last week about dialectical thinking. Today was 20 pages of questions about religion, most of which assumed I was religious. Three pages about praying to which I answered "never" to each one, as praying is something I don't do. And no, just because I'm not a religious person doesn't mean I'm depressed, as the survey seemed to want to discover. That happened for other reasons.

If I attend Berkeley next year, I've decided that I want to work at either Mod Lang Records or A Change of Hobbit Books. I know my parents are anti-retail-jobs, but I happen to greatly enjoy those two stores, and they're right next to the campus.
21:56

Suckiness in a bottle

As I was telling Jonah earlier, I've discovered the true source of my need to repeal the stupid rule. It's not that I hate freezing my buttocks off sitting on the cold hard pavement outside, chasing after my papers when they blow away, ducking when frisbees fly over my head. No, the driving force behind this is my subconscious need to piss off Dr. Hill. Every time I see him kick someone out of the hall it rekindles my desire to show him that I'm not this perfect little kid from his class, and that I have a mind of my own, and most of all, that he isn't the respect-commanding man he thinks he is. [Note to readers: I know you're out there, but don't quote me on this or I will track you down and do something evil.] Yes, I still hold a grudge since he was a horrible supervisor last summer and made two months of my life miserable. It's true.

However, I also don't like sitting outside and I think the administration is acting in a self-serving fashion. Isn't it a coincidence that they're evicting us, waxing the floors, and hosting this blue-ribbon guy all within a few days? I hope Friday's sit-in continues through Monday so he can see how Lowell students really live, as hallway bums.

Can you believe James told me I should speak at graduation? It would be hilarious. I can't do public speaking. I'd get up there and whine. [Note: I actually like my high school, despite common belief.] No, I think there are much better speakers out there, like...hmm...seeing Tommy would be amusing. Or someone who wouldn't give the usual the-future-lies-ahead speech, or be full of inflated hot air. Like Bush. I'm sick and tired of Bush's empty rhetoric. Yes, I know it's March 11, 6-month anniversary of that infamous day, but I can only hear him say evil or terrist so many times before I want to explode. Will it ever end?
21:42

New Nicknames for me to hate

• Kaytoe
  
• Toe
  
• Liv (as in "liver")

Why, oh why, can't my sister call me something normal for once? Recently her vocabulary has boiled down to four words: "Toe!!", "Pershni", "poo", and "sneeeeaky!" I'm about to hand her a theasaurus, except none of those have reasonable synonyms.
21:10

Bagman

Okay, so I've gained a bit of attention now. Last night while I was watching Fawlty Towers, Anna from The Lowell asked me for permission to quote my website, but went offline before I could reply. And people are paying attention to me and stuff. Maybe the administration will actually listen to me. (Dubious.)

I got to finally meet the new people at work today. For some reason, they're all guys. Dar had me train them on all the seeing exhibits, and I might have done a good job. These ones seem slightly more intelligent than the past group, which is always good. I hope they don't become evil like my current coworkers. That's never good. And ;ater I went on a hunt for AAA batteries for the laser. Shawn told me to check Outreach, but they had every size except that one. The shop had no batteries at all. I couldn't believe it. I work in a sciene museum that doesn't have batteries in the whole damn place?

muzak: Franklin Bruno, "Just Because It's Dying"
20:58

40 days is supposed to be a long time?

Last night I saw one of the most hilariously stupid movies ever to take place in SF. (40 Days and 40 Nights) At least they got the geography right, I suppose. The guy was sitting in a cafe surfing the web or something, and then there's a shot of the door and you can see it's Crepes on Cole, and then the N passes by, and I do that every. Normally in SF movies they have the very few cars driving backward on one-way streets downtown and such. So it was refreshing to see a bunch of real-looking San Franciscans and live landmarks. Even if the movie was about dot-commers not having sex and involved way too many bagels.
16:18

The Gutless Wonder

The scene: It's 42 degrees outside. I wear a thick sweater and thermal shirt. I am sitting in the hallway with Diane, not talking. Across the hall there is a group of noisy, unintelligent sophomores. Down the hall is another group of seniors.

Mr. Schmidt walks up to me. "I'm sorry, Katharine, that I forgot to tell you I had a dentist appointment yesterday when I asked you to TA for me. Were you waiting long?"
"No," I replied.
"Good. Well, you know, you're not supposed to be in the halls. Go outside."
"We're protesting," Diane said. I nodded.
A fourth person joined this merry convention. Dr. Hill.
"The rules say no sitting in the halls," he told me. "They really say that. You should leave."
"It's too cold outside," I managed to choke.
"Too bad. You should have worn more clothes," Schmidt tells me. "If you don't leave now, I'm going to have a write you a referral."
We shrug. "Go ahead."
"Why are you doing this, Katharine?" Hill asks, surprised.
At that point I grabbed my stuff and sort of stalked off, unable to bear it any longer.

Later I went to Lakeshore with Meredith so she can get a newspaper. She tells me that this, too, is not allowed during school hours. (Driving.) On the way back to her parking space in the student lot, we see a group of displaced students sitting in the lot. Is this what it's come down to? There's literally no better place for us to go. The noise level is so high outside near the building that we have to leave. (If the teachers can get a dumb rule like this passed because of union contracts which specify noise levels, why do we have to go outside, where it's even louder? It seems to me that the solution is made to fit the minority of teachers, not the rest of the school.) Meanwhile, we wander around looking for a path back up, since they've dug up and fenced off everything south of the buildings but north of the fields, making what? Who needs a fire road that's 50 feet squared where there was never a fire road needed in the first place?

What bothers me more is how the (only) two faculty who are enforcing this rule are directly attacking me. They don't ask Diane to move, or whether she should really be protesting, because they know she doesn't care if one more referral gets added to her drawer. She's good buddies with the dean by now. But they realize that my record is spotless, and my repuation is my point of pride or something. Well, I never thought of it that way, but honestly, students on the honor roll, part of that crazy shield and scroll organization, they don't have trash duty for staging a protest, do they? Isn't there something that should ensure equal opportunity harassment? Discrimination against good students? I'm not the source of the noise. I'm frustrated with myself for allowing this to influence me. I have courage enough on paper, in writing, but once it comes to verbally standing up, I fall to pieces. It's fucking disgraceful.

I've decided to personally sit in on Monday, with no nearby companions. I will have my explanation and willingness to comply with referrals on a piece of paper. I will have a petition for others to sign. This time I won't let any ganging-up of teachers scare me.

muzak: The Police, "Message in a Bottle"
23:49

Whenever I find out my grades for this year, I laugh. Why couldn't I have done this during my previous years? Why can I easily get a 4.0 now but had to work to get a 3.2 during sophomore year? And why is it that everyone still has senioritis? (Maybe that's why my grades are high.) Max was laughing about one of my previous entries in which I was ranting about Xi and James' relative academic apathy, but really. At least I'm not failing any classes, hm?

When I attached my thing about the Quiet Hall plan to my locker, someone thought it was a petition and signed it, so now I have about 40 signatures on there also, as well as someone's argument against mine, which in truth wasn't really an argument, but said something like "you're just arguing for argument's sake. Go find something more worthwhile." But someone had actually spent time analyzing what I had said. The thing is, I resent the fact that it was interepreted (by this anonymous person) as an argument I just felt like fighting. It's not as if I can call up George W. and tell him that he's fighting a dumb war. I can't stop the world from being killed by industry. Yet so much attention gets focused on issues like this that maybe something will be done. Or maybe not. I'm 17 years old. I can't vote yet. I'm in high school and I want to deal with the things that most affect my life, like the time I spend out of the classroom and sitting on the floor. It can't hit any closer to home. So how is it irrelevant and unimportant? Maybe this person doesn't sit in the halls. But there are hundreds of other students who do. However, i was happy that some discussion was happening among students. I get frustrated at the student government sometimes. I asked Jon if he could do anything about the plan and he said no, he couldn't. The site council reps don't do opinion polls or talk to the rest of the class, and hardly even speak at meetings. The class government has too many other things to worry about, like dances and other class events, and can't worry about schoolwide issues. Why the hell do we elect all these representatives to office if they have no control whatsoever? The only student institution that I feel does anything at all is the paper, but all they do is voice opinions and piss off SBC.

Meanwhile...Cohen can't move his lectures to Tuesdays, but I'd really like to participate. So I go visit him during mod 3 and he gives me a preview or review of what he talked about. It's a nice arrangement. I'd rather not spend time up close and personal (with 10 feet) of Anatoly, but whatever. I'll just have to deal with it.
18:34

Don't come around here no more

I felt kind of sorry for the guys' team in this afternoon's practice. We totally kicked their ass. It was a little unfair. Sorry, guys.

I just spent the day finding Issues to whine about and/or discuss. Examples: the Quiet Hall rule, Mr. Culver's complete grossness and habit of spying on the lab computers, the smell of sap in the airsocial habits of middle schoolers, etc. Otherwise: my calc test was good, I'm doing well in econ, and looking forward to Cohen's lectures. Oh, and it was election day. Prop A is winning. Woo.
22:37

Have fun shagging a giant eye



Take the Concubine Quiz at Scared Ducky!

20:38

We won't stand for it

Informants notified me this afternoon of another one of the administration's fascist policies. This particular plan, the Quiet Hall plan, which is to be told to the students on March 7, the same day as it is to be enacted. I recognize that the school is not a democracy, but this particular plan, to ban sitting and standing in halls of the main school building is unreasonable and unrealistic.

When the construction started, many teachers complained of noise outside so that they had to close their windows. In order to have proper ventilation, they opened the hall doors. Unfortunately, there were people in the hall making noise. The obvious* solution? To get rid of the students adding unnecessary noise to the school environment.

In 2000, the Lowell administration came up with a less drastic but similar plan to reduce hallway traffic: banning sitting in the first floor halls. Some students protested, but most complied. Now, however, they plan to justify their banning of hall-sitting by using the excuse of construction noise. This would be unwise and unfair. There is not enough space for students in the school, which is why we sit in the halls in the first place, and they provide few alternatives for the displaced students.

The Lowell campus was constructed for far fewer than the current estimate of 2600 students. The new science building will alleviate this issue, but will not come quickly enough. In an ironic move, the administration wants to remove all hall residents for an extended period of time, at a time when such a move is least needed. This week the forecasts predict rain for several days. Where should we go now? The "study arena", a haven for noisy boardgames? The cafeteria, which is already overcrowded? The library, where the noise level is enforced strictly, causing unnecessary tension between library staff and students? CSF, where the only activity allowed is tutoring? The resource centers? Try telling that to the hundred people sitting in the hall at any one time, more if the day is cold and rainy. Even if the sun were to shine, where could we go outside where we wouldn't have to shout over the incessant crashing of the bulldozer and backhoe, or breathe the air laden with pollen and tree blood? Banning students from sitting in the hallways is like making homelessness illegal: an unrealistic plan that would not do anything to fix the problem.

If the administration wants to make the school a better learning environment during the construction, it needs to face the real issue: that construction that coincides exactly with school hours is disruptive, but ejecting students from the halls with no alternatives only exacerbates our problems and the negative effects of the task of building the new wing. If they think they can enact this policy because of their first move in 2000, which we grudgingly accepted, they should think again.
19:05

Cliques, part 2

See this thread on cliques and their existence/nonexistence, prevalence in school, and my views on them.
15:42

Not as romantic as the bottom of a river

It came to me, by FedEx...my own...my preciousss.

I just received my class ring today. It looks nice. If I ever find the camera cable, I'll take a picture and put it online.
22:26

Arguably the stupidest thing I've done all year

Meredith treats me like a child with disorganized schizophrenia, which, of course, I'm close to being, but that's beside the point. Actually, that is the point. Saturday, when I went to her house, she lectured me on not having my wallet, keys, or cell phone on me. (They were in my backpack, which I left at home.) "What are you going to do in college?" she asked me. "There won't be anyone to let you into your room if you forget your key, and your wallet is very very important also."

Well, it's not as if I intentionally forget these things. I know there's someone in my house who can let me in, and if not, I can go bother Mark and Mike and go through their apartment, in case I forget my key, which I actually carry around with me. I always have my wallet and phone in my bag, but I just happened not to think I'd be needing my ID at her house. Anyway, the moral of the story is that she was right. Now for the story. When I left the house this morning, I had, among other things, my phone, my keys, my wallet, a dollar, and my Bart pass. This I deemed sufficient. However, after I left the Embarcadero Bart area with $0.40 on my ticket, and no money since I had purchased a beverage in Berkeley. I proceeded to try and enter the Muni station, and was shocked to discover that it was the end of the grace period and I was trying to use a February pass. I tried to call everyone in my family: two had no cell phones on and were not at home. My mother had a busy signal twice and then I finally got through and begged for her to bail me out of my situation. (At least it wasn't jail, I suppose.)
21:49

Burning down the house

How is it even possible to set a fork on fire?

Well, however it works, it is what my mother did this evening.
22:21

Half-chewed stick of gum

Hanna was supposed to come over for dinner tonight. I don't know what I would have said to her if she had actually come, but she had too much work to do and cancelled. So now I have more time to plan what to say to her. What can you say to someone who was one of your best friends for 8 years and then suddenly dumps you for not being cool enough, goes on to have massive social problems in high school which are gossip enough for the whole city, and suddenly wants to talk again when you haven't talked to her in three years (at the end of this month)? I mean, I don't want to hold grudges, and I don't, really, but I guess I just don't know what to say to her. I wish we could have stayed friends in high school. But obviously we didn't. End of story (for now.)

So what else have I done today? Went to work. There was a webcast today about the Hubble repairs mission. Ron was interviewing some astronomer who was ecstatic about going back up. (The way he described his first visit it was like touching the telescope was a religious experience for him. He sounded very sad that he thought he'd never get to touch it again, but was really happy about getting to go back to space now.) Sat around and fiddled with my language for a bit, didn't get much accomplished at work. I wish we'd do some different demos or something.

Yesterday I went to Meredith's to plan our trip. We've managed to get a couple of countries in a list, but I hope we can get our act together. Otherwise all my hard-earned money will just sit in the bank and be a leakage in the circular flow. Oh, but on a completely unrelated note, I am now the proud owner of this really cool pair of silvery boots. They need better laces, but they are extremely cool.

muzak: Lifehouse, "Everything"
20:56

Dheluast

Okay, I have now started a page for my conlang, Dheluast ("THEL-wast"). The page is here if anyone wants to know about what I'm doing with it.
16:34

Comman shnala?

Understanding Simmish

Thsi is what happens to people with way too much time on their hands. I did, however, find it an interesting article, as I've always spent a bit too much time and energy trying to speak the language of the Sims.
16:03

Necessary for travel

The Zompist Phrasebook

I'll be sure to bring this along if I travel this summer.
15:32

On retail

For some reason, my parents are completely against having retail jobs. I mean, that's what most teenagers do, and they get paid more for it than I do at my job, but can I ever get a normal job that doesn't require a whole lot of brainpower and gives useful discounts? Nope. That would be below me or something, according to them. They don't want me doing it. Out of spite, I think I'll go work at a music store when I'm in college. Then maybe I can afford to expand my collection a bit.
13:22

Hey

You are most like Basil, assaulted by bears! Created by Thren. Which Gashlycrumb Tiny are you?

I fell in love with Gorey's stuff in sixth or seventh grade, after seeing Mrs. Bayne's office poster of the Ghastlycrumb Tinies. I want to get my own copy of that. (No wall space. No ceiling space. What a sad fate full walls are.)
13:02

The Friday Five

I've decided to participate.

1. What's your favorite vacation spot?
   Guerneville, CA. David Stoller once described it as "redneck city", but it's only that way if you actually pay attention to the inhabitants' kids.
   
2. Where do you consider to be the biggest hell-hole on earth?
   Los Angeles. Hands down.
   
3. What would be your dream vacation?
   Pick one of the following: New Zealand, Antarctica, Iceland, or Wales.
   
4. If you could go on a road-trip with anyone, who would it be and why?
   My friends explicitly stated this morning that we would not do a road trip. But I'd like to go all the same.
   
5. What are your plans for this weekend?
   Shop. Work on my idea. Plan a vacation.

22:54

All that you fashion

Okay. So I had a list of things I was supposed to bring to school today: Monopoly board, Meredith's ER tape, thumbtacks, something sticky, and all my books, of course. But then I had to take the bus, and none of this was possible, except the tape, or I'd be very dead, considering I forgot her Scrubs tape the other day.

Three tests scheduled, two taken. None of which were fun. The calculus test seemed more like Torture with a side of Pinfold. All multiple-choice, too many partial fractions, and the only person who thought it was easy later confessed she didn't have a clue. Plus I've guessed myself through democracy. I need a break.

My break: finishing physics homework in the afternoon, taking a ride in Meredith's car so she could get some pants from her house, going to the mall with Andrea. That was fun. Seeing Shimmon on the way out of school reminded me that I needed to contribute a bit to GDP, support the economy, stuff. So I'm shopping tomorrow. But I need to remember to go to the bank.
22:45