One thing I hate about the first day of classes: teachers always want you to fill out an index card of information, usually including questions to get to know you better.
This week’s stupid question: How are you planning to use this course to enrich your major?
Unfortunately, it’s for a Rhetoric & Writing course which I would not willingly take if you paid anything less than… well, anything at all. I really do not like writing classes. And I like taking classes that I’ve already taken even less.
Granted, it was a “lower division” rhetoric class, according to my advisor, but I had to write research papers with arguments–some of which I had posted back when I took the class–and I really wish I wasn’t being subjected to it again.
But, being the good English that I am, I won’t grumble too much about actually having to take the class.
Now, grumbling about how I hate the work that has to be done? Expect much of that.
The notecard thing isn’t very creative, of course. A lot of teachers make us fill out notecards at the beginning of the semester, mostly because they want a valid email address. The other questions are just fluff. A “what’s your major” question in a class that is a core class for that major? Just silly.
The only creative “get to know you” class starter this semester was actually in my British novel class; we had to make name plaques for our desks with crayons, so that our classmates can learn our names.
Which is just silly. Everyone will know my name by Thursday because I talk too much, and ME’s because she’ll be the one telling me to shut up.
I am so easily entertained. And it turns out that I really like having someone else set out goals for me when I play the Sims.
I bought Sims Life Stories for my Mac because well, I already own Sims 2 for my PC, and really couldn’t justify buying it again for the Mac (it’s still at $50 at the Apple Store, not including any expansion packs). SInce Life Stories was only $35, and allows you to do free-play along with the stories, it was absolutely perfect.
The day I bought it, I played the entire first scripted story (the game comes with two). That’s right. I played Sims for about, oh, six hours straight.
While I am depressed that I finished the first story so quickly, I did learn with the second story to take my own sweet time. I’ve been forcing myself to not rush through it just to get through it, because I know I’ll be sad when this one is done too.
However, even though the scripted stories end, you can keep playing the story sims, living out the rest of your life how ever you want–turns out the Sim I married is a horn-dog. He’s aspiration’s been down ever since. Because I just don’t condone cheating sims. Unless it’s the sim I like. Then they can cheat all they want.
Along with having these two stories, there’s the free-play mode, which is exactly like Sims 2. The only difference I can see is that there aren’t as many objects, there are a few different objects, and there are no expansion packs. I can live with all that for a sims game for this laptop.
And this game is made for the laptop. It’s designed to be played entirely without a mouse, if you so wish (which I don’t), and keyboard shortcuts for things your sim can do–greeting, eating, and cleaning, for example. I don’t have to click on things to get it done, I can just hit a key, and Bob’s your uncle.
Can you tell I really like this game?
The only bad thing I can think of is that it isn’t actually put out by EA Games. The Mac version is distributed by Aspyre, which I take to mean that they ported it over. This means that I can’t register my game on the EA website, and take advantage of the stuff there.
Also, it means I’ll probably have to wait for Sims Castaway Stories, which I really really want. Because I heart playing it on my DS, and I bet it’ll be even better on the laptop. It’s slated for release today by EA, but the Aspyre site says early ’08. Whenever it is, I want it.
In addition to Life Stories, and the awaited Castaway Stories (PC), there’s Pet Stories (Mac). I might get that. Maybe. Probably. I do like me some sims.
– “I Constantly Thank God for Esteban,” A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out: Panic at the Disco
This last Saturday when I was visiting my parents, my mom and I went to see the Bodies Revealed Exhibition that has been in town for awhile. I’ve wanted to go ever since I saw it set up at the old Comp USA building, and so I was really excited that my mom had agreed to go with me.
My dad had already seen it, of course, because he doesn’t wait to see if anyone else wants to go with him. So it was just me and my mom and a hoard of people that had decided Saturday afternoon was the perfect time to go.
I really enjoyed the exhibit. We both got the audio tour, which was handy in that we could move around and see the specimens from all angles while being told what we’re looking at, instead of being anchored to the signs.
All of the donated bodies except one was male, and I didn’t think the female body was displayed to the best advantage. It was the body that was sliced down the middle so that you could see how all the organs are laid out in the body; however, the signage said that we were supposed to be able to see the female reproductive organs, which I couldn’t discern from the rest of the lower organs.
The bodies didn’t seem like real bodies–the process that preserves them makes them appear plastic instead of tissue. I was surprised at how no one touched the full bodies though, because people always have trouble looking with their eyes, not their hands.
My favorite part by far was the displays for the circulatory system Of all the wondrous things in our bodies, that was the one thing I was never able to imagine in my head. Veins that go everywhere? My mind couldn’t imagine it, but the display was amazing in how they showed it.
Displays of heart, lungs, limbs, liver, and kidneys showed how the circulatory system looks and works in those organs; also, there was a full-body display of the circulatory system, and when you see it, it becomes clear how a shot to the chest will kill you. The main vein in your chest that moves blood from your heart to ever where else is thicker than your finger.
I really enjoyed the exhibit and seeing how all the organs in your body really fit inside, how the muscles work, what the inside of bone looks like, and what different cancers of the body look like.
If this exhibit comes anywhere near you, you should definitely see it if you are at all interested in the human body. There are two different exhibitions, “Bodies … The Exhibition” and “Bodies Revealed”. I’m not sure what the difference is, but I bet that “Bodies … The Exhibition” is even better, since it is the bigger one and costs a few dollars more.
– “Paralyzer,” Them vs. You vs. Me: Finger 11
It’s sad that to make myself get up this morning, I had to put the remote to my alarm clock next to the alarm so that I would have to get out of bed to turn it off.
That’s right. I can turn my alarm off with a remote. And the alarm itself? Music that I’ve chosen. You’d think I could just let it play, but no. For some reason, it’s really annoying in the morning.
The reason I had to get up so early–and by early, I mean before noon–was that I had an appointment to get my hair cut.
It’s not a drastic change from what it was before, still an A-Line cut, but it’s cleaned up. I should have gotten my hair trimmed before Christmas, and have been putting it off for far too long. Today was my last chance to get it done before I headed back down to Sacramento for the weekend.
Me got her hair cut as well, and it’s adorable even if her hair grows super fast and you won’t be able to tell she had anything done in a few weeks.
What all this means is that we’re slowly getting ready for the semester to start around here. I’m expecting one of two shipments from Amazon tomorrow, filled with textbooks.
I can’t wait.
– “This Week the Trend,” Mmhmm: Relient K
Reports of Heath Ledger’s death are terribly sad, and unfortunately not exaggerated. I’m not such a huge fan that I’m in tears, but I am sad for his family and for the entertainment community.
I loved his work, especially the chick-flick genre. “10 Things I Hate About You” has always been a favorite–I did write an English paper about it, after all–and “A Knights Tale” was most amusing.
So, I am sad. He had so many good chick-flicks left in him, among other things.
As it turns out, my self-esteem is lowest in the middle of the night.
When I can’t sleep, I talk to people in my head. People I’ve been avoiding confrontations with, people I need to mend fences with, people I haven’t talked to in a long time.
Last week, in the middle of the night, I finally emailed You1 I hadn’t talked to him in a few months, and he hadn’t responded to any of my emails since I moved to Chico.
It was almost like drunk-calling, this email. I wrote about stuff that I wouldn’t normally bring up unless we were drunk. My low self-esteem was all over that email: “If, on the other hand, you’ve got better things, better people to fill your time with (wouldn’t surprise me either), just ignore me, and the lack of answer will be answer enough.”
That’s right. I pulled out the pity response; email me back or I’ll just assume you hate my guts.
Thankfully it worked. Sadly.
I am going to try to avoid drunken-emailing in the middle of the night from now on, but at least I get emails from You nearly every other day now.
(Is this personal enough for you, Shep?)
– “For a Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic,” Riot!: Paramore
- For those who haven’t been with us for a while, You is my best friend. [back]
Most of the time, I don’t feel bad about the decisions I make, especially when it comes to my blog.
Case in point: I closed the comments on one of my most popular posts, mostly because the comments were so inane — did these people read the post? — and if I was in a bad mood, or having a bad day, I would respond to the comments. This doesn’t make me feel particularly good when I’m not having a bad day, because then I remember that I am probably ten years older than most of the commenters, but it does feel really good when I need to release anger at someone other than who I feel the anger for (say, an evil professor or something).
The decision to close the comments on this post was driven by the fact that these commenters tended to bate me to their level. And I was just so tired of checking my email only to find that another comment came through. That was pointless. And was bashing me. And wasn’t at all creative about it.
Also, it helped that someone who knows nothing about IP addresses and the fact that I can see the email address of people who comment, left me three comments in a row, pretending to be two different people.
The first comment was slightly on topic:
Author : ACE (IP: 208.118.18.239)
Comment: I loved the Private series by Kate Brian. I do have to admit that the first book was a little boring, but as I read on, each book became more intriguing. Last night I stayed up until mid-night reading the third book Untouchable. On a certain level I agree with Lisa- that this site isn’t to insult her, it’s to give your opinion on the Private series, but I do have one thing to tell Lisa: Just because you’re a ‘FLIPPIN ENGLISH MAJOR’ doesn’t mean you know anything about books! You could be mentally challenged and you’re just taking the class to show the world how dumb you are and what a bad taste in books you have. Oh and how do we know you’re an English major?
I’ll admit that just because I’m an English major doesn’t mean I know anything about books. But I know a lot, and it just doesn’t make sense that I would take a class to show the world how dumb I was. For one, I tend to take classes that I like, and that I’m good at. Second, I’ve talked about my grades on the blog before, and I am definitely not dumb. Stupid, maybe. But not dumb.
The second comment was… questionable:
Author: Santa (IP: 208.118.18.239)
Comment:I AGREE WITH ACE
It’s always nice when people pretend to be someone else to back up their own argument. In all caps no less.
The third comment was when I decided comments should just be closed on this post:
Author: ACE (IP: 208.118.18.239)
Comment: I JUST READ YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY.fOR AN ENGLISH MAJOR, YOU SURE HAVE GRAMMAR ERRORS AND PUCTUATION MISTAKES: NEVER START A SENTENCE WITH THE WORD AND. OH AND FOR THAT THING WHERE YOU SAID YOU READ 52 BOOKS BY APRIL; THAT’S JUST BEING RUDE AND OBNOXIOUS
I love when people devolve into internet shouting, because they don’t think I’m going to get the point. I personally just think she forgot to hit the Caps Lock button after the last comment.
I have wanted so long to talk about this last comment. To refute it, if you will.
- Yes, this site is filled with grammatical errors. To begin with, I’m not terribly good with grammar. It was one of the two B’s I received this semester. Also, most of the time I write spur of the moment, and don’t double check my grammar before I post. And finally, a lot of the time I know it’s grammatically wrong, but would rather it be wrong because it gets my point across best.
- You can start a sentence with the word “and.” There is no rule, grammatical or otherwise that says you can’t. You can start a sentence with any damn word you please. It’s just that in general, when writing formally, you probably shouldn’t. Just like you aren’t supposed to use contractions in a paper. But I’m not writing formally. This is colloquial writing, writing exactly as I would speak.
- Keeping a list of how many books I’ve read is rude and obnoxious? Dang it. I guess a website devoted to me and my life is just as rude and obnoxious too. At least I’m not a liar. Because I really did read that many books.
So, these three comments by the same person, in a row, lead me to close comments on the post. Because I know I would keep going down the slippery slope of badness. I already regret the phrase “I’m a flippin’ English Major.” Mostly because I know that isn’t a defense or a reason. I could have phrased my argument so much better than that one sentence, but that probably would have taken a whole post.
These three comments were justification enough for me to close down the comments on the post. However, this week brought me a comment — through the contact form — about that same post. It wasn’t the first time this has happened, but it was the most well spoken of all the comments I’d received about the post:
olivia wrote: I wanted to post a comment on your review on Private but you closed it down. I just wanted to say that your review did have some really good points. I love the fact that Reed doesn’t let them push her around all the time but it gets annoying because she will be rebellious and then all of the sudden she remembers she needs to kiss some serious ass — to me it makes her come of kinda flaky. I agree and I hate the way the book ends and the endings are the same in every other book. She [the author] tries to leave it a cliff hanger but she does resolve some of the problems, just not all of them. I to am hooked on this series; there are many good qualities in this book and it keeps you wanting more. lol and I get so annoyed with the end of the book that I want to buy the next one just to find how it’s really supposed to end, only to be left with another cliff hanger. I wish her ending were a little more stronger, and most of the girls who commented your review sounded really foolish and I couldn’t help but laugh at most of them especially the ones you fought back on. Your review was great and good luck with your major. [comment edited for capitalization and punctuation for clarity]
I wish I got more comments like this, well spoken and thought out. She didn’t even have to kiss up to me at the end for me to like it. This comment reminds me of why I used to occasionally post book reviews — to share what I thought of a book, and to hear other people’s opinions.
Thank you, Olivia.
Thank you for taking the time to tell me your opinion, and reminding me why I love book reviews. I had forgotten why, when that post was garnering the most comments for the blog, and most of them were knee-jerk reactions to what was perceived as my bashing the novel. Which I was, just a little.
And now, to start a review of a book series I’ve read all the way through, from beginning to the most current. And I don’t like that series too much either…. But at least I can speak for the whole series, and not just a single book.
I don’t know when, or why exactly, this blog stopped being personal.
After all, it is a blog about me. My life. What I think. When I look back on the posts for the last six months–or longer–I can see what my readers can’t. This stopped being personal long ago.
Of course, I still wrote about things: what I’d been reading, random lists of who I needed to talk to or how I wanted software to work, of preparing to move to a new city with a new roommate.
However, I stopped digging deeper into my own life. I haven’t talked much about living in Chico (I heart it more than Pepsi), how I broke up with my boyfriend of five years (which an insanely long story), how life is.
This makes me sad in a profound way. This whole week, I’ve been talking with Shep about things, Danny occasionally, trying to figure out when the personal blog became superficial. When the important moments of my life didn’t get recorded anywhere — not only the blog, but in my physical journal as well.
I don’t know where the change occurred, when my blog became background noise. It wasn’t that I was online less; I was probably online more, complaining about the ennui that had enveloped me. But somewhere along the line, words stopped falling out of my fingers.
I’ve got posts I’ve started, months and months ago, that I never managed to finish, the words still locked up inside me, unable to get out.
This makes me sad.
Sadder still is that it’s taken me this long to recognize what the blog has become. I can only hope that by recognizing the downward changes, I can reverse them. Not to have more readers; to be true to myself and why I started blogging.
– “Welcome to the Black Parade,” The Black Parade: My Chemical Romance
Things I would really like to work together to help me stay super organized this year:
- iCal
- Things
- Schoolhouse
In my ideal world — which is currently dominated by being the perfect student — these three programs would work together gorgeously in helping me stay organized and on top of the ball.
I use Schoolhouse for all of my school-related functions: taking notes, keeping track of assignments, and (hopefully) keeping track of my grades. In a perfect world, every time I created an assignment in Schoolhouse, it would automatically create a to-do in things. This being automatic is a high priority — entering it in once is hard enough for me. However, not only will an assignment create a to-do, in my imaginary world the type of assignment would determine whether or not the to-do becomes a project in its own right, and creating tasks in Schoolhouse would create to-dos that are automatically assigned to the project.
In the reverse, when I mark a linked to-do as completed in Things, it would thus go and mark it as complete in Schoolhouse; if I mark an assignment complete in Schoolhouse, Things should mark the to-do completed.
For most people, this may seem like enough, that my two favorite programs are talking together and working perfectly. However, I heart iCal and the way I can look at my whole week at a time, seeing where I have to be and what I have to do.
So, in my absolutely perfect world, Things communicates with iCal, and to-dos that I have given a completion date should appear on my calendar, and if I mark it completed there, Things marks it completed, and vice versa.
Sigh.
I wish software developers followed my whim; it would make me extremely happy. I know the Things-to-iCal communication is in the works, but I sincerely wish there was a Schoolhouse-Things communication in the works. It would make this semester’s organization nearly perfect, and my failure would be without excuses.
– “I Light My Own Fires Now,” The Shade of Poison Trees: Dashboard Confessional
- Be more organized.
- Procrastinate less.
- Exercise more.
It’s a sad, sad day when not only has exercise made it onto the new year’s resolutions, but is also the most likely of the three to be accomplished.
There are many more things I could add to this list of things I want to do throughout the year. I want to write more (both blogging and fiction), to read more outside of classes, to knit more, to go out more, to have more fun.
However, that’s a crazy long list, most of them without anything more definite to go on. And most of those require me to be more organized and less procrastination minded, so it makes more sense to put the deeper reasons for my failings on the list.
These three are failings, too. For someone who keeps her room clean, her papers in order, and everything in their place, I am massively unorganized. Tests and papers sneak up on me — like last semester, when I didn’t realized until the Thursday before that we had a grammar test on Friday, and still managed to forget to take the test on Friday (it was an online test). I am constantly forgetting when things are due, when events are, and when I’ve promised to be places.
I do realize that exercise does usually tend to be the default resolution for many people, but I really need to stop putting it off. I’ve been complaining for the last few years how I feel horrible for being so out of shape (and am still huffing and puffing for short bike trips), but haven’t done anything to combat it. It’s time I finally stopped feeling like crap, and actually exercised.
It’s a good thing that I have the entire month of January off. That’s a month to become set in my new ways, so that when the semester starts up, it won’t be so easy to brush them off.
Hopefully I’ll remember to blog about how things are going occasionally. I know I’ll need advice on how to get this done, and so I’ll be counting on my friends to help pull me through.
