Travels with Kallie in search of a good restaurant

Brains during finals taste like swiss cheese. FYI

2009-12-19T05:31:36Z

Finished my Invertebrates final... It was not pretty. But it's over.

I have to say, realizing that you have a huge paper still due for the class that you just finished bombing a final in is the real-life equivalent of those video games where you barely defeat the final boss on your 92,870,982 try and then he rises up out of the remains of his tower in his final form and you've used up all your fairies and Princess Zelda is still not feeling like doing shit for you and your hand is starting to cramp because those damn N64 controllers were designed by Satan.

And yes, I still remember the frustrated screams of my cousins and brother back in the '90's when this happened to them after hours and hours of working to defeat Ganon the first time 'round. This pain is the same.

But I'm not worrying about that right now. I'm studying for genetics, which I have a much better handle on. Taking that tomorrow, then I have about two days to write this paper and pack up.

Well, in theory that's what I'm doing. Actually, I've had this very deep internal need for semi-angsty Parent!Fic (preferably with Hyuugas), so I'm trying to satisfy my need with the limited supply available.

I was going to buy some paraphenalia from the Bella Library for an X-mas present for a friend who may or may not follow my LJ. If any of you at MHC know what happened to this item, please let me know?

It's official. I'm in hell.

2009-12-17T21:13:48Z

I have spent the last 3 days attempting to study for this $&(*)@# inverts test, and I still have not made any progress.

I've given up on making flashcards, settling instead for making a list of all the groups we need to know and trying to memorize bits about all of them.

Going through my notes is like those old word problems they gave us in the first grade and we were supposed to underline the extra information. But instead of:
"Paul has three apples. Polly has four apples. Polly is wearing green socks. How many more apples does Polly have than Paul?"
I have things like,
"brain forms around proboscis. Some secondarily combine mouth + proboscis opening. Bdellonemerta clings to clam gills and eats food. 1800's, proboscis = notochord?". And SOME of the animals I have passing notes on will be included, and others will not.

Also our windows are so bad that I literally cannot sit at my desk because it is too cold to type over there. I've spent the entire day in bed w/ a heatpad. My feet are still cold.

And to the smartass who gave a big lecture after the last class about how "This is a 300-level and it's not supposed to be easy, and this is the same amount of work as any other 300-level," FUCK YOU AND YOUR NEED TO BE SUPERIOR. FUCK YOU WITH A HOLOTHURIAN. THIS WOULD BE A 300 LEVEL EVEN IF IT MADE SENSE.

I am not in a good mood.

Keeping a Stiff Upper Lip

2009-12-15T06:50:40Z

I forgot to tell you all that Vespers: Boston was pretty cool. Spent most of it with Jen, since we're the only people in our circle of friends in Bell choir and nothing else.
The church we were at was absolutely beautiful! I wish I could have looked at it in more detail, but we spent most of our time confined in the balcony. Also, it was easily the best performance of our song that the bells have done all year. ^_^

We also hung around Boston... Kazie and I want to get an apartment there when I graduate and she switches schools, and it just sounds better and better all the time. Jac is considering moving out there... I offered to let her room with us... 'cause that won't be awkward for either her OR Kazie OR me if the two of them don't get along. Anyway, that's a long way off.

Finals are not actually eating me alive, but I'm also failing pretty spectacularly at this Invertebrate paper I'm supposed to be researching.

I'm starting to get upset about being gone all of Spring semester. Because a large chunk of my friends are graduating and when I think about saying goodbye to them for the last time I get all wibbly-eyed. On the downside, I'm all wibbly-eyed. On the upside, I'm pretty sure that I can force myself to burst into tears at a moment's notice any time I want a hug. ~~I wonder if Stan would cut the paper down to 5 pages...~~

Apparently Jen has never seen me cry before... which is odd because I cry at the drop of a hat... I seriously had to refrain multiple times from weeping during The Hogfather. Which is about Death dressing up as Santa Claus. My point is it's very easy to make me cry. If you're a fictional character. Who is not dying. I don't cry for dead characters.

In memorium?

2009-12-14T00:15:16Z

Well, I spent this weekend ~~screwing myself over re: finals~~ ~~wishing I wasn't going to be across the world and away from MoHome next semester~~ saying goodbye to my RP characters of the semester. I've become excessively fond of all of them, although I won't mind saying goodbye to Igor and Yuna, since I got some closure on them.

Hiz- er.. "Bruce" the XXXX Igor: after he and his fellows saved the libraries of the world, they were stranded on a desert island. And turned into cats. So he's a patchwork cat on a desert island. Screwy is also a small, bad-tempered cat. End Igor's story (although not the legacy of his lisp, which I still do from time to time).

Shota Warui: got kidnapped and thereby went from being the group's Fail!Naruto to the group's Sasuke. I'm having the most trouble letting him go, possibly because I'm going to be the plot of next semester and it's frustrating knowing I'll have to watch it from afar. (Not that Shota could exactly do anything anyway. He's been kidnaped.) I actually calculated when I would have to be online to skype in. 8:00 Sunday mornings. NOT gonna happen. T_T

Yuna: Managed to insult over half the court to their faces. It was a beautiful burn. She's now off to lay low until the fiasco's over... more-or-less indefinitely. End Yuna's story.

So there. End my semester of playing as many hours of game as I was taking credits of class. Never again.

*wibble*

(PS: Happy that the Sad!Neji mood icon has finally found a home in an entry appropriate to my mood.)

Px6 Night

2009-12-09T14:44:48Z

It's SNOWING SNOWING SNOWING!! And two of my classes are cancelled... although, sadly, not two in a row, so I just have awkward spaces of time to kill between my classes that were not.

It's been busy since I got back from Thanksgiving. I've been trying to sort out my Australian FinAid stuff, which as it turns out is a nightmare. See, they tell you that you're getting aid from them, but they don't tell you how much until December. Actually, they didn't want to tell me until mid-January (a month before I LEAVE for AU), but TJthecuteSTSguy who sometimes makes my problems go away talked to them. So they're giving me approximately $3000 less than they think I need and approximately $5000 less than I actually need. Going to have a talk with them after class.

On a more cheerful note, Monday Hannah and Marissa and I had our PPPPPP night! We got on the PVTA (the local bus system) and went to North Hampton for Porn, Pralienes, Pastries, Perling, Privilege and Pizza.

Porn: We went to Oh My!, which is NoHo's local adult shop. It's tucked into a basement and it's very cozy and not sketchy at all. They had condoms with tuxedo designs on them. Just FYI.

Pralienes: Okay, so we couldn't think of a p-word for "candy in general". There were no pralienes involved. But Hannah did take us to a little gourmet chocolate shop that had wonderful things... I picked up a tin of those rose-flavored French mints, and Marissa got violet ones and a thing of Mexican hot chocolate for her aunt. Hannah picked up a couple of the chocolates... with some peer pressure from me she got a sea salt and vanilla flavored one, which she said was 'interesting'. Someday I will have money and then I will got back there and eat their chocolates.
We also stopped at a bulk candy store and picked up some rock candy and candied ginger, and it was good. I've been eating it kinda nonstop, though.

Pastries: We stopped at the bakery that I'm always trying to get to and got things. I don't remember in detail what mine was, but Hannah got this huge spongecake soaked in rum syrup. SOAKED. I had a bite. It made my teeth hurt.

Perling: Well, we were going to stop at the yarn store for Marissa, but it was closed, so we just drooled in the window for a bit.

Privilege: While waiting for the bus, we stopped at Urban Outfitters, which is housed in a beautiful old bank buidling, which is a sin because that building could be used for something so much better. They had some amusing but overpriced stuff... a lot of home accessories with birds. I've noticed that you don't really see too many clothes with birds, but there's a lot of home stuff with them... so maybe my decision to start a bird theme in my life is more to do with an unconcious desire for a house than a need to keep my muffins near me.

Pizza: We headed home and got custom minipizzas at Blanchard for dinner. The woman making them was a complete fail at it. She was very angry and did it wrong, so the pizzas were all mishapen. And then somebody who didn't feel like ordering a pizza absconded with both mine and Marissa's, so we had to steal new ones.

I had a presentation on albinism the next day... that was a 1-hour-worth-of-research-and-prep-via-Wikipedia effort.

Oh, also Vespers was this weekend. Handbells did pretty good, I think. Okay, not at the first performance, but by the second one we knew what was going on. We're also going to Boston Friday for the final one!

Although, I hope my roommate, the Bell Director, appreciates how much I care for her. There's this one girl who goofs off, doesn't really listen, and tries to take over for Alisa as much as possible, and I was ready to strangle her by the end of the day. She kept interrupting Alisa while Alisa was trying to explain what we needed to do, and then at the end of Vespers the first time, she insisted that we were all supposed to turn around and face the audience (she had been insisting that this was true all day, but nobody else knew what she meant, and since she goes so far out of her way to be the only one who knows what we're supposed to be doing because she's an experienced senior and we bow to her wisdom *sarcasm*, we all ignored her.) Everybody but her and the people next to her didn't turn around because she was the only one who said we were supposed to, and we weren't sure it was right. Anyway, it would have looked awkward.

Now, the idea behind Vespers is that it is a classy Christmas performance. If something goes wrong, you recover by doing the most professional thing possible. So, if you turn around and no one else does, even if you are right and everyone else is wrong, you should turn back around so that everyone is doing the same thing. Standing there, one of three people in an entire row facing the other way, and hissing at the other people to "turn around NOW" throughout Joy to the World is NOT professional. But that is what she did. As far as I can tell, soley because she wanted all the audience to see her and think, "At least ONE person in the Bell Choir knows what she's supposed to be doing. She's so poised, the way she's hissing at her friends who are too dumb to listen to her, even though she's clearly superior."

Maybe it's a petty thing to still be irked at, but it's just her whole attitude all semester that she's supposed to be in charge, when in fact it's my very responsible, very professional, very nice roommate's job to be in charge, and does a much better job at it than she ever could. This is just kind of the epitome of her petty attempts to be the center of attention. Anyway, like I was saying, it is only my great love for Alisa that has prevented me from bitching this girl out immediately after the performance, because while I am going to be abroad next semester, and when I get back she will have graduated, Alisa has to deal with the fallout of me exploding.

On my oath, I am not an obsessive woman!

2009-11-28T19:50:29Z

Well, good Thanksgiving, as always (Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, in case you didn't know. It's all about eating food. That's all. Just food and feeding people.)

Went to Grandmom's and made stuffing, green beans, and Aunt Barbara's Sweet Potatos, which you make by mashing some canned yams with a cup of brown sugar and a pound of butter. Best. Dish. Ever. (We also had bran rolls, turkey, and cranberry sauce, but I wasn't involved in the production of those.)

So we ate too much and then mom, Jake, and I took my grandparents' excitable little dog Rocky for a run to try and tire him out, which is impossible.

Yesterday I hung out with the Nuances. We went down to Borders, which, for the first time since records begin, HAD Monstrous Regiment. It also had the 1st volume of SoulEater, so there was Inner Conflict and Tough Decisions, but Monstrous Regiment won. So now I have TWO copies of Monstrous Regiment in my possession and my Borders gift certificate carries just a little less weight.

You're all going to read Monstrous Regiment. You may not like it, but you WILL do it.

Speaking of gender politics, there's one little section in our Borders devoted to "Gender Studies". The bottom three shelves of this section have books like "The Dominant Female" and things that sound fairly topical, and the top shelves were full of Penthouse "Erotic" novels. I was pissed. BORDERS FAIL.

GEESE IN FLIGHT!! GEESE IN FUCKING FLIGHT!!

(I felt nice and subversive buying a pro-feminist book from them. Perhaps this explains why it was so fuckin' hard to find?)

Anyway, good times with the Toast on Black Friday. Opened a bank account with Chase with Dad today, so I'm that much closer to being set to go to Australia. (PS: Discworld people; the guy setting up my account had been to Australia and told me to be careful about drinking XXXX brand beer. I lol'ed internally.)

Go back to MHC w/ Mom tomorrow. We're gonna read Monstrous Regiment. I'm no great shake with voices, but I can do Wazzer pretty well, and that's a start.

I can show you my tattoos

2009-11-22T06:47:18Z

Last entry I forgot to mention the school-wide Thanksgiving Dinner.
This was Thursday, ie after I had been up all night and was not thinking clearly. I met up with a bunch of friends and we had dinner. Jen (a sophomore that BethWanIa is trying to incorporate as our Neji as we need one quite desperately and she looks a lot like Beth), wanted me to check out a webcomic, so she borrowed a pen from Yiwan and wrote it on my arm.

This lead to her and Marissa each taking turns doodling on the arms closest to them. My left therefore had a tree, a sign pointing to Smog the Dragon, and various things in Chinese (Marissa just got back from her study abroad in China), including "I love you" and the slang for jacking off. She also drew a heart with "Hyuuga" written in it, "Property of the House of Bosco" and "Newf was Here".

Jen drew and colored in a giant tree, a sea cucumber, and a tracoplax. Yiwan got in on the action and wrote "20 yen" on my right arm and "30 yen" on my left, as well as "property of Bethwania".

After several attempts to doodle on my forehead, I told them that JEN could draw my Igor scars on my forehead at the Discworld game because I didn't trust Yiwan not to violate the 1st law of cosplay (Never Cosplay a Nazi). So come Friday we get together and Jen pulls out a sharpie. I noticed, but Igor scars are a powerful persuasive factor for me, so I let her go ahead.

I also didn't expect Jen to have gone home and looked up the Caged Bird Curse online and memorized it for this occasion. But she did. Everyone I talked to told me it was my fault for trusting her. Yay abusive relationship enablers!
I didn't expect someone so actively refusing to be drawn into the ongoing Hyuuga Inside Joke to do this. I forgot she lives on the same floor as Beth and Yiwan.
It was a stupid move, in retrospect. At the time I couldn't think why ANYONE would know how to do this.

So I got home from Bella and managed to scrub the permanent sharpie off my head. Scrub being the active word. I'm short a layer of skin on that part of my body. I got back to my room and held a bottle of rootbeer to my head for the rest of the night. ^^

I wore a hat to the Hyuuga Rant today and actually managed to convince everybody that I hadn't been able to get it off. It was kinda brilliant.
Rant went great this time. Turns out that I didn't do it Spring semsester, only twice in Fall, so maybe I do owe an encore. We'll see.

So, then Jeff's game and generally nerdy love, after which Jen stole my hat in exchange for getting to curse me again.
...
....
I like my hat.

Okay, so I'm a doormat. As I see it, if anyone kinda deserves it, it's me. I mean, that powerpoint is 42 slides. It's expected my friends will try to curse me. I made her use a dry erase marker, as compared to a pen, which would have hurt my delicate forehead like nobody's business. Then I got home and hung out. My roommate came back a little tipsy from celebrating a friend's 21st, so that was fun. She asked me why keep letting this happen to me. It's only been twice!
I just now washed it off, very gently. My forehead is protesting this treatment. I'm thinking that tomorrow will not afford them another opportunity if I want to keep my skin in one piece.

(...but Jen told me I was her favorite Junior and that was kinda worth it...)

And I do hope you guys realize I wouldn't let them keep this up if I wasn't at least mildly amused by it. Have a little respect for my ability to take care of myself.

The week in review

2009-11-20T18:44:04Z

My, I haven't been keeping up with my LJ, now, have I?

So, here's the interesting-ish shit I've done since Seth Rogan and Nick Nolte.

Last Friday the Discworld game cast made sea-cucumber shaped brownies! They were delicious. I got to eat icing with a spoon.
(Jenna: I heard we kinda trashed your kitchen; really sorry about that. I'll come clean it up whenever you want!)

So there were sea cucumber brownies, and then Beth and I decided to do something different with our lives and check out the We <3 the 90's party that the young Dems were hosting. I freaked out a little because I couldn't think of any beloved 90's characters that I could dress as on short notice (I almost did Patty Mayonnaise, but I didn't have the right clothes), so Beth just wore a flannel shirt and I pulled on the most fluroscent clothes I owned and had a side ponytail, since the 90's were a hideous time when everybody was so fashion-blind that they decided to adapt hideous styles of the past. All the effort turned out to be in vain, though, because it turns out that the theme of a Blanchard party is usually irrelevant and the true theme is 'alcohol'.

They had a date action, which lasted for several hours and which Beth and I agreed was well worth the $1 we paid for the dance. It mostly involved very drunk women taking off some of their clothes while their friends bid ridiculous amounts for them ($120 was the highest we heard), interspersed with attractive men taking off their clothes and not understanding that they were going for less because their drunk friends weren't in the audience buying them.
The dance itself was desperately lame. It had been advertised as a 'rave' AND as '90's themed', so we were extremely disappointed that the music was slow techno and neither dancable nor 90's. I didn't even get hit on by sketchy guys who show up because they think MoHos are desperate. (You may say 'well, that's good, then', but remember that getting hit on by sketchy guys is the only sexual thrill I get that doesn't involve cartoon ninjas these days.)
We left fairly early and hung out with the Wilder Colony until 3, so that was cool. On our way out we were accosted by a classmate who was extremely wasted and spent a really long time telling us how much fun it was to people watch and that we should stay 'cause "I know I'm going to do shit I'm not proud of!" This was also well worth the dollar.

Saturday my father and I bought my ticket to Australia and back! ("Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia! We love you! Amen!") I leave Feb. 9th and get there Feb. 11th, so I want you all to remember that on 2/10/2010, I will not exist. How cool is that?
Also I'm going to end up spending my 21st birthday (June 21st) in an airport in a country where it was already legal for me to drink. But I do intend to be tipsy on the flight back anyway. Nobody's taking my 21st Birthday Debauchery away from me, goddammit!

Sunday Yiwan and I enacted our evil plan to make Exalted worth going to. More importantly, however, it was my roommate's birthday, so we went to the Mead living room and watched The Court Jester and Aladdin. Good tiems.

So... come Monday I had not done any of my homework...ergo I was up all night Wednesday to finish a paper on leeches and their relations for Invertebrates. I actually had enough caffiene in my system to be pretty coherent, so that was good. I was even alert enough on Thursday to not hate life OR Stan. And then he showed us a movie of octopus and cuttlefish changing color, and all was forgiven as far as I was concerned.

To celebrate having no pressing homework, last night Alisa and I watched Mostly Martha (or Bella Martha), which is a German movie about an OCD chef. It's brilliant. There's an American version, but according to mom and Alisa it's very Hollywood and kinda mangles the original.

I've got a paper due for Russian on Monday... it's only 1,000 words... which means that Sunday night will be quite miserable for me.
See, I also rented Guards Guards and Monstrous Regiment from the Bella library (after stealing the key, so slightly illegally), and drunken Vimes and Igorina are kinda beating the Romanovs for my attention right now.

TOMORROW (SATURDAY) IS THE HYUUGA RANT! SKINNER 216! 4:30! A THING OF BEAUTY!
Well, technically it starts at 4, but I want some people who are going to be at hanbells to be able to make it, so I'll be doing some delaying techniques. ^^

And with any luck I will be picked up for Thanksgiving on Tuesday and be home by Wednesday. We'll see. My parents don't like communicating.

Bw/SR&NN

2009-11-08T23:41:41Z

Based on Dan Green vs The Spiderwick Chronicles
Spread the meme!

The Plan

2009-11-07T19:12:56Z

This is the plan for next weekend, which is going to be EPIC.

Friday:

2:00 to 4:00 -ish: Pending me actually procurring a kitchen, the Discworld game and others will be making sea-cucumber shaped brownies. They will be frosted and have sprinkles. Because I want sprinkles. More info on this to follow.

4:00 to 8:00: Discworld, where Bruce the Igor will be recovering from having all the knowledge in the universe pumped into his brain at once.

9:30 -2:00: We Love the 90's party.

Saturday:

4-ish to 6-ish: THE 3rd semi-annual HYUUGA RANT. SKINNER. 216 or other unoccupied room. TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

7-10-? : Jeff's game, which is always epic.

Sunday:
4-6: The long-overdue anniversary of Yiwan's and my Exalted characters. ;-P

This weekend, however, will just be me and the members of Stan's Evil Invertebrates class researching leeches. And not a whole lot else.

You have lovely eyes.

2009-11-06T20:38:13Z

A found meme by raiding favorites on DA... eventually lead me to a stranger's blog... her answers were full of nerd-rage (I should have known something was wrong with her when she listed her favorite pairing as "ShikaTem" and her least favorite clan as "Hyuuga"), so I stopped reading, but I did intend to do the meme... until I filled it out and realized just how many of my answers were ridiculoulsy Hyuuga-centric and you already KNOW that part of my life.

I know that I need to do some serious work over the weekend if I want to survive the next two weeks, but instead I spent the day on CollegeHumor watching trailers for Sims horror movies.

...So, anyone read Naruto 470? I got real excited because for a second there I thought Kisame told K.B. that he has pretty eyes (false alarm). I've been waiting for some canon on ItaKisa ever since Itachi's mysterious "lover" made the papers two years ago. Looking for ItaKisa is nice because there's no longer any sense in looking for NaruSasu canon. Seriously, they'll be announcing their engagement any chapter now. I can't ship NaruSasu anymore, because that's not shipping. That's standing on the dock.

Okay, I admit, I don't have anything to say. I'm just bored.

I'm thinking of making a list of my favorite romantic lines. Just 'cause. I'm real bored.

Uh, I found a very good internship that I'm going to try to get into in Columbus over the summer. That should be fun. And I can chill with Robert and the bros!

And in the end, the muffin you make...

2009-11-05T03:19:02Z

~~Day one: a song~~
~~Day two: a picture~~
~~Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic~~
~~Day four: a site~~
~~>Day five: a youtube clip~~
~~Day six: a quote~~
Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy

Well, I think that I've been very good about keeping fandom out of this meme, so I'm going to indulge myself with this:
A Comic starring muffins.
No pairings, just <3.

So, interesting stuff since my last post...
I noticed yesterday that I have 2 quizzes and four papers, all of which require research and all of which are large parts of my grade, due within a one-week span. So that's fun.

Also Beth and I coined the term "Cluffin," which was supposed to be a clove-flavored muffin but instead sounds really dirty.
I'm still on a Hyuuga kick... stronger than usual, that is. I'm trying to convince Beth and Yiwan to have a cupcake-baking party in costume so we can try to get pictures where I'm not smiling insanely.

Aaaaand the power went out this morning. Turns out my mircowave beeps after power outages until you re-set its clock. Most annoying thing ever.

Most Random Cosplay Group Award

2009-11-03T00:59:01Z

~~Day one: a song~~
~~Day two: a picture~~
~~Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic~~
~~Day four: a site~~
~~>Day five: a youtube clip~~
Day six: a quote
~~Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy~~

"I hate it when I can't gird my loins with funny animals" ~ Calvin & Hobbes

Well, today was pretty... normal. I stopped by the apartment and finally liberated my Hyuuga cosplay pictures from Chelsea... a surprisingly large amount of them involve me in great physical pain and Beth looking either very amused or slightly paranoid. I also have some pics from GYGO of my Maka costume, which is nice... Although, I really need to learn to take pictures before the dance when my hair is behaving itself.

Not much else happened aside from that.

My hair was straighter at the beginning of the night. I told people who didn't get it that I was Luna Lovegood, and that satisfied them.

Beth, Yiwan, and me, as Hiashi, Hanabi, and Hizashi, respectively.
... I want you to appreciate how hard it was for all three of us to keep a straight face long enough to take this picture. This was like our 7th try or something. You can also see Hannah's Anemone cosplay in the window reflection. (I need to fix the pucker on that fishnet...)

Hiashi being terrorized by his demon child. Yiwan is a very enthusiastic Hanabi, which takes a lot of doing.

Since I made dinner and cosplay pictures are always a go, I ~~forced people to take~~ took a series of pictures of Hizashi making dinner... also Hiashi drinking and poking at the food, and of Hiashi hitting Hizashi with a frying pan for not cooking fast enough. Eventually I'll find the courage and the excuse to post all of them.
I apologize to anyone involved in this photoshoot, because they experienced the full force of my nerdgasm at having a full contingent of Hyuugas to play with.

I had my camera on a low resolution, so the ones I took probably aren't salvagable, but Hannah used Chelsea's ridiculously-nice camera, so we can fix the eyes on them, which will be fun. For me, at least. =D

Halloween calls for my zombie icon...

2009-11-02T00:56:09Z

...which is good because I'm not really sure what other occasion it applies to.

~~Day one: a song~~
~~Day two: a picture~~
~~Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic~~
~~Day four: a site~~
Day five: a youtube clip
~~Day six: a quote~~
~~Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy~~

This is long, but cool. Courtesy of my awesome little brother.

And I have no clue how to embed this thing, so you have to follow the link. Things, but very slowly.

Well, trick-or-treating was quite epic. A bunch of my friends went in a giant group... but Hannah and Chelsea were still finishing their costumes, so we left a little late and went down Faculty Row, which is across the street and leads into a twisted, dark, potholed neighborhood where all the houses are up long driveways... also it was drizzling, so there were not many kids out, and even fewer since it was getting dark. Most of the houses we stopped at unloaded most of their candy on us, and after the first few houses I stopped feeling scrupulous about taking large handfuls of the candy people who weren't home left out... since the bowls were pretty full and it was clear that nobody else was coming by for the rest of the night. Pretty good haul.

Quote of the evening: "See, when I'm grown-up, I'm not going to leave candy out if I'm not home, because I know that some douchey kid- one like me- will take all the candy. And then he'll steal the bowl."

Then Jeff's game went until 12:30, so I didn't make it to dinner at Blanchard... but that's okay because I'm ashamed of how much I love that game. (We pulled up a map of the Naruto world so we could figure out where the hell we were, and when discussing who was and who was not friendly with our village, I realized just how deeply nerdy I am. WE COULD STILL MAKE A BREAK FOR IT AND GO TO KONOHA, GAIZ. CEE KNOWS HER WAY AROUND THERE CRAZY WELL. ...I kid. At this point, our options are missing nin or death. I'll take Akatsuki towel boy for 200, Alex.)

And then I ate lots of sugar today. LOTS of sugar.

And at textsfromlastnight, my area code (740) is crazy. Actually, all of them are crazy. I love that site. MLIA.

Wherein SoulEater questions my honor

2009-10-31T17:58:05Z

~~Day one: a song~~
~~Day two: a picture~~
~~Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic~~
Day four: a site
~~Day five: a youtube clip~~
~~Day six: a quote~~
~~Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy~~

I'm sure most of you have seen this... but... I love it anyway. Emailsfromcrazypeople. Don't read the comments, though, because they're YouTube level of stupidity, for the most part.

...So, anyone at Bella last night is aware of my deep-seated contempt for Tsubaki (Soul Eater)'s backstory. I'm aware that the Hyuuga Angsty Backstory is not exactly original, but MY MUFFINS are in it, and Tsubaki and her brother are so sappy.

It doesn't take a genius to draw the comparison between BlackStar and Tsubaki and Naruto and Hinata. Leaving BlackStar and Naruto mostly out of this (as BlackStar wormed his way into my good graces somewhere along the way and now I think he's kinda adorable), I just thought I'd take this journal entry to tell you why Hinata (my least favorite Hyuuga) > Tsubaki (an action badass).

Hinata and Tsubaki are both submissive traditional Japanese women. Which doesn't bother me all that much in and of itself...

The thing is, everyone Hinata knows thinks that she's weird for being like that. Naruto introduces her as the weirdest girl he knows. Kurenai and her family think that she's a complete trainwreck. All of them are constantly saying, "Hinata, if you're not going to stand up for yourself, you are not going to survive as a warrior. It's just not how this works." Hinata has friends, people like her, nobody wants to see Neji beat her up, but everybody is just really happy to see her grow a little backbone.

Whereas all of Tsubaki's friends act like her self-denying behavior is normal, and Tsubaki never seems to be even the slightest bit passive-agressively upset that she doesn't get the appreciation she deserves. In the manga, it's different, and I'm actually kind of fond of her in the manga. Manga!Tsubaki seems more motherly than anime!Tsubaki; manga!Tsubaki gives me the vibe that she's a very patient person who is very fond of BlackStar, and so she's willing to wait for him to get serious, rather than force the issue. Anime!Tsubaki has more of the well-I'm-just-a-weapon-and-I'm-not-worthy-to-make-suggestions... possibly because I can edit her tone in my head in the manga, but in the anime I'm stuck with her hesitant pleading.

It really bothers me that nobody in their group of friends takes BlackStar aside and says, "Dude, can you please at least acknowledge that Tsubaki is way too good for you and that you'd be dead without her?" and nobody takes Tsubaki aside and says, "Hey, Tsubaki, we know that you're much better than you let on. Good job!" or "Hey, Tsubaki, you are allowed to tell BlackStar what to do. This is a partnership. You two are equals. Your opinion matters." So I suppose that Tsubaki herself isn't my problem, more how the people around her seem to find her submissiveness validated, but since Maka, Soul, Liz, Patty, Kid, Stein, Spirit, and Shinigami-sama have never placed all my Hyuuga muffins in a blender and made a bland backstory smoothie out of them, Tsubaki and her off-brand-Neji bear the full brunt of my wrath.

(As a completely unrelated aside, the Hyuugas aren't original, but I think what I like about them is that they take several different cliches from the same situation, mixed several generations, threw all of them together, and came out with a veritable clusterfuck of angst and destiny. And that makes me tremendously happy in a way that Tsubaki's episode of whining cannot.)

DESTINY!!!!

2009-10-30T21:52:07Z

~~Day one: a song~~
~~Day two: a picture~~
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
~~Day four: a site~~
~~Day five: a youtube clip~~
~~Day six: a quote~~
~~Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy~~

My favorite fanfic on the entire internet, one that you must read. You just must.

Hey Ocarina! The Cheesy Zelda Musical
by Galaxy Girl.
It was originally a fanfic.net classic, but it was deleted for script format, a great injustice of the universe. It may very damn well be longer than any of the fics that you guys have rec'ed me that I've refused to read based on length. It is worth the time I have invested in it. It is a Thing of Ultimate Beauty and a must-read for anyone who played Ocarina of Time in place of having a childhood.

Not much else to report today; I just desperately wanted to share Hey Ocarina! with you.
Highlights of today: I wore a green shirt, green spandex pants, fushia underwear over them, a bikini top and blue swim goggles over my head, and a red shawl as a cape. I was a superhero.

My Bio professor forgot to indulge in his yearly fruit-fly halloween costume, so that was disappointing. But I talked to him about it while signing up for my advising appointment, and that was kinda cool.

Alisa was "Traffic Lady" and had a caution-tape skirt that she wore around, and together we went to lunch and then to Pearsons (a dorm) for their haunted basement tour, which was actually really scary... given that it was the basement of a dorm. I also ate a donut off a string and colored a mini pumpkin to look like a zombie. It's over our door. ^^

So, now I'm Maka (for Bella, the only place where I can go dressed as Maka and be cool), and in the Discworld game making jokes about sea cucumbers and how they're inappropriate. Tomorrow I'm going trick or treating as my superhero. Yay, candy

Okay, so I cheated on the pictures...

2009-10-30T01:54:59Z

~~Day one: a song~~
Day two: a picture
~~Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic~~
~~Day four: a site~~
~~Day five: a youtube clip~~
~~Day six: a quote~~
~~Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy~~

I went through deep thought and my DA favorites trying to decide what to share with you for this one. An under-appreciated Weiss Kreuz gem? Something procured from the internet-award-winning HizashiClub? A group portrait of my favorite people?

From here.
Tea. Don't try to lie; you were expecting Neji. I like non-fanart, too. Also I've shown most of you all my bestest Hyuuga pics already.

And because this makes my day better every time I see it;

(PS: Several years after discovering it, I still am not over my crush on the Hizashi Club. I really need to stop developing these deep committed relationships with fanart pages.)

So, after finding an article on a travel site for college students that suggested modeling for fast cash (mind you, it also had an article about the best positions for having sex in a public restroom), I took it as a sign and, on their advice, headed over to Craigslist to find some not-so-sketchy opportunities. (with mixed success. I'll think about it. May be able to find some stuff in Athens over J-term, though, which would be helpful.)

I also found a listing for donating your eggs for $5,000-$10,000. How sad is it that I'm actually considering it?
Although, I think that if ten grand showed up in my bank account, eventually the college would find out about it and that would wreck havoc on my finaid for next year, so perhaps I will save that desperate measure for immediately after graduation.

To end on a more up-beat note, I think I need to make an LJ entry dedicated to cakes I want to make someday. Until then;
The Toblerone Cake: a dense chocolate butter cake, with a nougat disc between the layers and frosted with honey buttercream. And yes, I have recipes for all of those things.

Ooh, and I found a "yacht recipes" book on the Bio department free table. I <3 the free table.

Take a bite of this apple.

2009-10-28T21:13:44Z

Thought I'd do this meme from kazie_komikcat , because sometimes I have things I can share, too.

Day one: a song
~~Day two: a picture~~
~~Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic~~
~~Day four: a site~~
~~Day five: a youtube clip~~
~~Day six: a quote~~
~~Day seven: whatever tickles your fancy~~

So many choices, even from a musically-stunted individual like myself! There's my newfound obsession, Suzanne Vega, and then there are all those Bob Dylan songs that aren't "Like a Rolling Stone," and then of course there's Flight of the Conchords, and MGMT...
But I've got to go with the one that I've been listening to at least once a day for the past two weeks and at least once a week since I found it over the summer:

Comfort Eagle by Cake (a band that lives up to its namesake by being delicious.)
We are building a religion
A limited edition
We are now accepting callers
for these pendant key chains

To resist it is useless
It is useless to resist it
His cigarette is burning
But he never seems to ash

He is grooming his poodle
He is living comfort eagle
You can meet at his location
But you better come with cash

Here's a Cowboy Bebop AMV for it that was decent... but the song's the point, right?

Well, nothing much since my last update, although I keep thinking, "I could make an LJ out of --," and then not doing it.

I found a huge Dark Knight poster in the recycling bin during my nightly paid dumpster-diving activity. It's hanging on the wall opposite my bed... which is a little disconcerting, because it's really a very creepy one and waking up to the Joker is much less satisfying and more terrifying than I originally expected. My roommate (very reasonably) doesn't want it on the wall that doesn't face my bed, as she doesn't want to wake up to it, either. So I don't really know what to do with it. Anyone who wants it and will give it a good home is welcome to it.

I've been looking for scholarships so that I can afford to study abroad. Turns out that most of the deadlines have past. Normally I'd say, "Well, Kallie, you've just once again proved that you're an irresponsible fuck-up," and leave it at that, but this time I assumed that, since the website says "Students recieveing aid from us are expect to apply to these scholarships" (at the end of the page) and since they never mention these scholarships in any of their previous correspondance, that they would give us more information at the mandatory info session. I was wrong. Also, the info session that I was waiting for to get more information? Took place yesterday, roughly a month after the scholarship deadline. So not only did they not even mention outside scholarships, but by assuming that they would, I missed my opportunity to apply for money that I desperately need. FML.

My roommate suggested that I do a little modeling on the side. She was joking, but the more I think about it, the better it sounds. Seriously, it wouldn't be work-study, so I won't earn over my ws limit, it probably pays fairly well. I've actually considered it before as a way to take advantage of my unhealthy figure while perpetuating society's unrealistic body expectations for young women, and all I need is about $2000 to pay for the ticket and all.
Does anyone know how to go about looking into this?
...of course not. Why the hell would you? Why the hell would anyone? Oh well, I can be independent of my flist if I try.

I want to start going into Northhampton and bakery-surfing on Wednesday afternoons, but it's raining like crazy today, so I think I'll start that next week... or possibly some other day.

Plan tonight is to watch ridiculous hentai with Hannah and take my mind off my various troubles that way.

Another Family and Friends Weekend

2009-10-25T18:37:15Z

Well, my parents were up this weekend... they just left about an hour ago.

They showed up Friday after I failed epically at keeping the Discworld game PG-13 as per Emma's request, but the request was because we thought her parents would be there, but they weren't, so my inappropriate jokes about my sea cucumber were fine.

(Igor, in case you're curious, has discovered that he's infected by Narration molecules and therefore is about as locked into his destiny as humanly possible. Jenna's vampire has more-or-less unofficially hired him on.)
(I've just realized that I have created a Hyuuga/Young Frankenstein crossover. MLIA.)

ANYWAY, parents up, not so stressful, really, although Dad did contrive to complain about the hotel room and location at every turn. We went to the Teapot, which was good because I've been craving me some sushi lately, and then we hung around the room and tried to find something on TV. Slept in until 12:30 as a unit on Saturday, so we woke up and went to Rao's. I had a cupcake and hot chocolate while wearing my half-assed L costume (because the L costume is actually just a normal outfit), and I amused myself by pretending that someone else would notice and write on their twitter, "Watching a girl dressed like L eat a large cupcake in character. MLIA."

It rained all day, so we stopped back at my room and watched The Worlds Drunkest Man Buys Beer, a 30 Rock, and an Office episode, because my mom and I are nerds that way, and then we walked around campus a little... nothing too exciting. We stopped at a bookstore in Amherst and I gravitated towards the cookbooks as per usual. Eventually we decided to get real food, so we went to Pasta E Basta, where I got a delicious calzone with just a tad too much ricotta (I have some dairy issues), but the important part is that I got a big slice of tiramisu afterwards. Tiramisu is my favorite, favorite, favorite dessert ever. I love it like Hyuugas.

Then we went to Paranormal Activity, which is REALLY well done! It's not terrifying, but it's plenty suspenseful and scary enough to give you a good adreneline rush. We all enjoyed it. We screamed at the end, but I scream for no reason, so it's not quite as impressive as Brad screaming.

And then today we got breakfast, walked around North Hampton, and then they dropped me off and left. And now I have a ton of homework. Ah well.

Happy Happy Fun times

2009-10-23T01:08:08Z

Time for a fast update (as usual).

Vegas Night was great fun. I won 500 tokens on Wheel of Fortune, drank some sodas with salty-sugary stuff around the rims, spoke briefly to a guy with an Australian accent, and snagged an entire pocketful of mini-Toblerone bars.

Get Your Geek On was also a success, and not even harmed by the fact that I had been up until 4:00 the night before. I was Maka... I've got to get some pictures of that cosplay. Good times. I borrowed Emma's scythe from her death costume, so I got to slowdance with that.
Alisa, Emma, Jen, Beth, and Betsy were Nac Mac Feegles from Discworld, which was pretty awesome. Actually, there were a lot of really good costumes this year, and only non-sketchy guys. It was pretty cool. And the turn out was much bigger than expected, so that's good, too!
Although, since there were no sketchy guys, I didn't get hit on. This may sound like good news, but being a turn-on for sketchy nerds is my one sexual thrill that doesn't involve animated ninja, so it's kind of a mixed bag.
I DID rock out to "I believe in a thing called love", which was fun.

(There's a video; if you notice Awkwardly-Dancing Maka, that's me. I'm also the last picture at the end. I like that I always have red eye. There's also some wonderful footage of the costume contest. A Dr. Who in my Invertebrate class won. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoPHwTdoj4&feature=related)

GYGO was proceeded by a poorly-attended Harry Potter 2 Riff Track. The second movie riff is much better than the first, IMO. But also the second book and movie both have special places in my heart. (I <3 Tom Riddle and his ridiculous middle name and how he just tells Harry, "Yeah, I'm really fucked up, but therapy is expensive and killing people is cheap and fun.")

Monday Alisa had two prospies who were supposed to shadow her, but all her classes were cancelled, so I took them to my classes instead. They were pretty cool.

Also: Alisa is to Harry Potter what I am to Naruto. We spent Mon. evening quizzing her on random HP trivia and she knows what his father's wand is made of off the top of her head. I can't beat that shit.

The rest of the week was spent convincing myself not to freak the fuck out over my Invertebrate test, despite the other students having heart attacks around me. Fortunately, I'm lazy and smug, so this wasn't too difficult, although I didn't get much sleep the night before due to nerves. But I think I did okay... Allow me to qualify (Beth will probably not to speak to me if I'm too smug and/or beat her grade); I think I didn't do worse than anyone else in the class. If he curves it, I should be fine. If not, at least Beth will continue to be my friend.

My parents and my little brother are coming up for the weekend!!! They should be here tomorrow, although no one's told me anything, so I'm not sure when. I should write my paper on fruit flies before that, but instead I'm at SciFi night watching Empire Strikes Back. I took a nap earlier. It was great.

I'm not exactly sure why I'm excited; it's bound to be stressful as hell, but whatever I love my family anyway.

TGI almost F

2009-10-15T23:45:54Z

I've got a Twitter now!
http://twitter.com/KallieStarmist

In other news, HORRIBLE day.
I mean, I knew that I wouldn't get much sleep and that my essay would be horrible. I was not counting on Stan wanting us to read them aloud. Fortunately, an austute senior threatened to cry-for real- if he insisted, so I didn't have to.
Invertebrate Zoology is the worst course I have ever taken in my life. There's no structure to it, I don't understand what's going on half the time, everyone in the class is smarter than me, I never know the answers to any of the questions he asks in class, and I can't draw. So spending all of Thursday in this class with under 5 hours of sleep in my system, was not good... especially when we got to lab and I couldn't find a single organism on any of the pondwater slides I made. I feel bad, 'cause Stan's a very nice guy and he's expecting people who are really interested and self-motivated to take the class... ie not me.

So after a hellish day, I went down the apartment to see if anyone was interesting in flyering for GYGO (WHICH IS THIS SATURDAY, 10-2, BLANCHARD, BE THERE!!!), because all of our flyers got taken down for no particular reason and we're already fucked since we're competeing with Vegas Night (the biggest party of the year) on Friday.
Anyway, everyone was busy and I was tired and cranky, so I went home... but not before my friends who are going to Vegas Night told me that they bought tickets for the alcohol-free event, which was cheaper. I had already bought the more expensive alcoholic ticket for myself. FML.
Also, the students selling tickets refused to exchange my ticket, even though they're trying to encourage people to go to the non-alcoholic event, so there's $30 bucks down the drain just to go to a fuckin' party the same weekend as another party. I'm going to try and scalp my other ticket, but still. F.M.L.

We still have to flyer tonight, even though its cold and dark and I'm tired and no one wants to do it with me.

Anyway, I got a nap in, which was nice, and then mom called and I complained to her. She sent me a package! I still have to go pick it up, but it was nice to get some good news. Today has been a fucking nightmare.

In other news, at 2:30 in the afternoon, James Cook University in Australia accepted me into their study abroad program. And, even though it was 2:300 in the morning here, I still got the email the minute they sent it. I'm excited.

The case for Twitter

2009-10-15T05:17:03Z

If I got a Twitter, then when I was staying up all night to do essays that STAN ASSIGNED THE DAY BEFORE BREAK, DUE TWO DAYS AFTER BREAK, THANKS STAN, (oh, and nice making us discuss them in class the next day, thus forcing us to be coherent despite the ridiculous due date), then you could get lovely little gems of procrastination wisdom from me, such as;

-"I look just like Princess Zelda. How is it even possible that I'm single?"

-"If you were to write a play based on Neji's backstory, the character of Neji would be entirely optional."

- "I've officially lowered my standards from 'makes some scientific sense' to 'makes some gramatical sense'."

-"I've unofficially lowered my standards from 'makes some gramatical sense' to 'is almost the required length when put on 2.2 spacing.'"

See what the world is missing out on?

Sick on so many levels

2009-10-09T03:03:22Z

Still sick. Sore throat, however, has evolved into an old-fashioned runny nose... which I discovered during Inverts today. Kinda unpleasant, especially since it's over two hours and if you leave or zone out for five seconds you will be lost for the rest of the class, since STAN CAN NEVER FUCKING STAY ON THE SAME TRAIN OF THOUGHT FOR TEN FUCKING SECONDS and feels no need to let you know that he has changed topics. Or, even worse, use the word "order" to mean "order" instead of "class," "family," or "genus". Bitter? Me? No. But he also forgot to give us a break halfway through, so I was forced to rush to the bathroom in the middle of lecture. My notes for today currently have a list of unidentifiable latin words that were written haphazardly on the board when I got back. *shakes fish angrily*
Afterwards Beth asked me why I hadn't brought tissues and told me not to come to Discworld. I don't think she believes that this is the healthiest I've felt all week.

Last night I was telling my roomie about the bizarre relationship I had with the boy who was eventually 4th in our class, and how my dad thinks he's a snob but his parents were always trying to get us to hook up. We realized, pretty much simultaneously halfway through this story, that my friendship with Dylan was the plot of a Draco/Hermione fanfic. I'mma write it.

This lead to Alisa asking me what Naruto character I would marry. I'd never given it much thought. I usually say stuff like, "Ooh, I'd tap Suigetsu in a heartbeat," but I know that this isn't a good qualifier of Kallie's Attractedness to Anime Characters, since if any Naruto character burst through my door and said "Kallie, I want to have sex with you," my reaction would not be "Well, I disagree with your beliefs re: ninja society's problems and their solutions, so I think I will have to pass until someone more suitable comes along. ~~Bad luck, Danzo.~~" My reaction would be "Holy fuck! A Naruto character wants to have sex with me! Go get the emergency condoms out of the bathroom! I love my crazy sexual dreams!"
In other words, given age-appropiateness, there is not a single character in that series that I would not sleep with. Marriage is a different story.

I put some thought into it... I think Itachi's at the top of my list, but I've been hanging around the Myers Briggs pages lately. Itachi's a hard-core INTJ, and INTJs are the sexiest of the personalities... if you're another INTJ. Neji's high up there, too, which my roommate didn't believe. ("You would seriously marry into that family?"). Kisame is also on there, which my roommate ALSO did not believe, but she doesn't follow Naruto, so I suppose the blue is hard for her to get over. NOT all of the Hyuugas are on the list, but Ko and Hiashi are. (Not Hizashi; I bet he gets clingy.)
So, yeah. TMI. From me.

Also:
Alisa: Oh my god. I'm twenty years old.
Me: You know, Sponge Bob has been on for ten years. That's half of our life.
Alisa: AH! Why don't they cancel it?!
Me: Naruto's been around that long, too.
Alisa: Yeah, but that makes sense. Naruto has a plot.
...
Like I said, Alisa doesn't follow Naruto.

Also this:

Bella girls
Make ends meet.
They're very good
At squishing seats.
Burma Shave

The Investigator

2009-10-05T01:00:04Z

From Kazie-Komikcat. I dunno, I liked it.
PS: I spent my weekend playing three distinctly different, but very social, characters, each with different mannerisms, thought processes, backgrounds, and goals. I'm developing multipersonality disorder and my voice is going. Also I'm not as socially-competent as any of them (with the possible exception of Igor), and it's putting a strain on my antisocial personality.

You Are 5: The Investigator

You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker.

You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does.

Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations.

You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it.

At Your Best: You are sharp, inventive, and creative. You have the skills to lead the world.

At Your Worst: You are reclusive, weird, and a bit paranoid.

Your Fixation: Greed

Your Primary Fear: Being useless or incompetent

Your Primary Desire: Being competent and needed

Other Number 5's: Bill Gates, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Bjork, and Stephen Hawking.

What Number Are You?

Blogthings: We're Not Shrinks, But We Play Them On the Internet

Also, flyering for GYGO was crazy fun. Yiwan, Hannah, Chelsea and I were supposed to cover both UMass and Amherst College in the rain. We walked around Amherst and that was fine, and then we decided just to drive throuhg UMass (since it's fuckin' huge) and just put flyers up at the bus stations. But I was wearing my rainjacket (which is the type of thing you wear to flash someone, and Hannah was wearing Chelsea's hoodie that zips all the way to the top of your head, so Hannah would zip up the hoodie, jump out of the car (which was black with tinted windows), look left, look right, then motion me out. I would whirl out, coat flapping everywhere, run into the bus station, slap the poster on (Yiwan having previously taped it), and then jump back in the car and we would drive off. We were quite the spectacle. Also I was sopping wet by the end of the drive because I was moving too fast to look for puddles. We're so excited for next flyering time.

Wanna touch my sea cucumber?

2009-10-02T00:36:55Z

Most exciting part of my day: Finding the 9 trailer music on Project Playlist. Just the music, though, because the lyrics to the actual song are kinda obnoxious.
...

So, right, about Maine!

I forgot my camera, which was dumb of me, so I don't have any pictures to show you, but that's okay, because I fail at photography journalism. ^^;;

Anyway, weekend kicked off around 2:00 on Friday, where there was crazyness because another class had picked the same location to embark on their overnight journey, so we had to sort that out, but we all found our respective classes pretty well. So it was nine girls and Stan in a school van, which was white with tinted windows. It did technically say Mount Holyoke on the side, but in pale blue, not very visible letters, so I imagine that we looked pretty sketchy at rest stops.

Points of interest on the 7-hour journey up;
Poker Face, The Helen Keller song ("Hey, girl, shut your lips. Do the Helen Keller/ and talk with your hips"), and Shorty Fire Burning on the Dance Floor (which Sean Kingston wrote after a midget caught fire at a party he was DJing) all came on in rapid succession, which lead to a conversation about trashy dance music. (Love Games came on on the way back. Oh Lady Gaga. You have outdone the music industry for trashiness.)

After dark, some couple in a car drove up next to us, honked, and pressed their MHC pendant against the window. We were happy... I was especially amused that the girl was driving and forced her boyfriend to root around in the backseat for this pendant and then hold it up against the passenger window. That's a MoHo alum for ya.

We got lost once we got close enough to the research center, as GPS's are strange machines that are convinced that people need fewer instructions when they get to the general vicinity, as compared to more instructions because anybody can figure out how to go "North" on a highway, but not everybody has inate knowledge of rural Maine?
We turned around in front of this white two-story building that looked a little like a cross between a shop and a house, but it was in the middle of nowhere and read "Town Hall". I still insist that this was a sketchy looking building, but everyone else claims that it was fine. It looked like an abandoned brothel to me. We passed it the next day in daylight, and everyone else was like "oh" and I was like "Still sketchy!"

We had to turn around in long farmhouse driveways a couple of times, and the first time I managed to further endear myself to the driver by engaging the others in a loud discussion about how each of us would die if we were being pursued by an axe murderer. We assured her that she would live but suffer a broken leg preventing her from driving us out of there, but she was still Not Happy with me. (As the obnoxiously-lame comic relief, I died after hiding in the van. The other van-certified girl would cowardishly try to drive away on her own, crash, and be axed. I would try to run and attract the murder's attention.)

Also, nobody in Maine believes in reflective signs, so we had to drive up right next to the mailboxes to read the numbers. But despite all this, we finally made it, and it's a pretty neat facility, even if it's pretty sketchy looking at 10:00 at night when nobody is around but your class. MHC had been allocated a house and two cabins. Beth, Rose (Betsy's twin), and a girl that I should know but don't shared a cabin with me.

The cabins were very nice; they were just two rooms, a bathroom and a kitchenette/bedroom, but I wanted one really badly. (Rose and I discussed our growing lust for our own houses. It was good to have someone who understands.) Two bunk beds. Beth took the bottom, I took the top. I got to top Beth all weekend. For possibly the only time ever. ^_^ (Beth, for those who aren't used to hearing her real name, is my twin brother... and yes, it is awkward that her roommate and our lab partner are legitimate twins. They are possibly the only people on earth that I make an effort to tune down the twincest jokes around.)

The kitchenettes came with cups and stuff, so I, being thirsty, drank a glassful of water. This was a mistake. The water tasted like magnesium and iron and iodine. I downed the whole glass before I noticed. Stan found out about this the next morning and teased me about it for the remainder of the trip.

So the next morning we woke up for breakfast... we were wandering around the buildings when the driver opens the door to one and motions us in, saying, "There isn't any breakfast in here but at least it's warm!"
Apparently they had not found the space heater in the cabin and had practically froze to death. They didn't believe us when we told them that the cabins came with heaters. The one girl who took the 5-person bedroom in the house was quite smug.
We spent a while puzzling over a map before we got in the van and managed to end up in the "Dorms," which contained the Smith students having breakfast.

(Smith, our sister school, does this trip every year. They were all nice enough, but I've heard tell that Smith was not happy that MHC was interfering with their thing. They had two classes, Inverts and Ocean Ecology, so they took a charter bus. We talked to the bus driver, and he was pretty awesome.

I told everyone that Smith was going to be the popular girls in the Camp movie and we were the outcasts who desperately wanted to be popular, but our perky councillor Stan was going to teach us to value ourselves and eventually beat the Smith girls. I don't know why I do these things, but they apparently run through my mind constantly. That's me, a walking cliche` dictionary.)

Breakfast was good, then we all drove down to a rock outcrop that contains just a ton of tidepools. I've never seen a tidepool before, but as a child they were my Goal In Life (I had so many books on tidepools. I don't even know why.), so I was just as excited as hell.
I've realized that my major charm as a student is that, even though I don't think all that critically and I'm a bit of a dunce at speaking like an educated scientist, I'm very enthusiastic. At least I've got that going for me. -.-;
Thankfully, Beth is just as willing as me to be a stubbornly intrepid explorer, so the first thing we did was wander out of sight and stick our hands into the deepest crevices we could.
Lots of rocks to crawl over, covered with seaweed which was full of snails... I could hear them crunching under my feet. Many a snail lost its life to my old tennis shoes last Saturday. But so worth it (easy for me to say, I'm not one of the snails). We found starfish and crabs (I put one in the bucket, but it started to fight with another, so I took it out... it pinched me pretty hard the second time... when I was setting it free. C'mon.) and sea anemones and a spongy thing with weird markings that turned out to be a colony of sea squirts that I was deeply attatched to because they were mine. ^^
Another group found a bunch of these little sea spiders called pycnigonads (spelling subject to interpretation: Stan just calls them "pycs"), which are pretty awesome.
But the real fun for me was just sticking my hand in water and touching random things to see what they did. I realize that the past 20 years of my life have been spent teaching me not to do dumbass stuff like that, but I don't care anymore. I made it to the two-decade mark.

Then back to the lab for a tour lead by Stan... I forget what the particular system is called, but they run fresh seawater through the tanks, which allows them to keep a bunch of animals that normally don't survive in aquariums. So we saw some sea scallops that refused to swim no matter how much Stan irritated them, and some baby lobster (fun fact about lobster; their claws only grow different sizes after they use one to clamp down on something.), and some various other nifty sea things.

Somebody had dregged up some plankton for us, so we joined the Smith students and looked at plankton and the various critters we picked up at the tidepools (they had them in a tank with a lot of other nifty things, such as larger starfish and a sea cucumber. On this, more later). The Smith students all had to draw a certain number of different plankton for their grade, so they were very seriously preparing slides and examining things, occasionally asking the name of whatever they were looking at. We pretended to, but we all grabbed brittle stars and sea urchins and just looked at them. (My excuse was that I had a pretty killer headache from waking up before 10:00. I'm a wimp.)

But the real difference between the Smithies and MoHos was when the Smith students left and all of us gave up any pretense of doing real work and just crowded around the tank and played with the starfish. (They crawl off your hand using little sucker feet! It's SO COOL.) There was a sea cucumber, as I mentioned earlier. I held it, and it felt like a velvety cucumber. Pretty cool. I want one. Anyway, here's a real snippet of dialogue that I swear I am not making up:
Stan: Who here hasn't seen the sea cucumber yet? *selects nearest student* Okay, hold it. Feel how flaccid it is?
Student: Yes.
Stan: Stroke it and pet it. It'll get hard.
Student : *doing so* AH! It's getting longer! *worried* What's it going to squirt into me?
Other Students: *wheezing laughter*

The sea cucumber was in pretty bad shape after that. We wore him out. Too demanding. We had to stop or otherwise he would have turned himself inside out. No, srsly.
On Sunday, one of the Smith professors had a similar demonstration. I didn't hear all of it, but she started out by saying, "So, who hasn't seen the sea cucumber? If you hold it, it will retract its muscles...blah blah scientific explanation blah."
And THAT is why Mount Holyoke is the best college on earth.

We also got on a boat, where one of the girls had "On A Boat" on her iPhone and we sang, both before and after we were on the boat. The Smith students did not. Tsk.
We dregged up some sponges and other marine wildlife, which was pretty cool, but it was dark at this point and the lighting on the boat was bad, so we just filled up buckets with the critters we found. The Smith students did not help carry the buckets back. I was pretty vocally angry about this, which in retrospect was a bad idea.

(I was actually pretty vocal the whole weekend, which, just ask anyone who has been with me in a vocal mood, is about the most hellish thing that anybody ever has to endure. I'm very obnoxious. I keep meaning to work on that, but I don't.)

Boat was followed by lobster dinner... which was fun and tasty but very messy and I already smelled fishy, and the loster water did nothing to improve this. We went back to the lab and sorted out organisms behind the Smithies' backs... I found a worm which turned out to be about 8 inches long... which caused the girls around me to start screaming, which startled me so much that I almost broke the poor thing in two. I didn't... but the driver considered us even after that. Then Stan licked the worm to get it to open its mouth. Stan is pretty much awesome.

Stan and the girls of Cabin 3 walked back in complete darkness... we almost wandered off the road on several occasions. It was an adventure, if nothing else. Then Stan moved on and the girls of Cabin 3 laid out in a field and stared at the stars, which were BEAUTIFUL and talked about how Rose can take care of her sister's kids and give her genes the same evolutionary advantage as actually having kids. Pretty good set up for her. I also talked about how I want to be Amy Frary (My advisor) when I grow up, but Rose was quick to point out that she was already winning the race to be Amy Frary, so I guess I'm going to have to find my own destiny, there. *sigh*

Sunday morning we went to breakfast and left. We were planning on stopping at state park to look at mudflats, but it was going to rain and the bus driver counseled Stan against it, plus we were all dead tired, so we just went home. I sat in the back and read Peter the Great the entire time (and still didn't finish my reading for that class. Pleshekov, less reading please. Like, seriously.) Beth expressed both her supreme surprise and supreme pleasure that I was neither loud nor inappropriate the entire way back, which should tell you something about how I outdid my usual level of obnoxious this weekend. Picture that. Picture me outdoing my Ohayocon self.

Today was our first day of Inverts since the trip (thanks to Mountain Day), and it turns out 97% of the stuff we collected died in MHC's very broken saltwater tank. I picked up an odd piece of thing in lab today, and it turned out to be what was left of the sea squirt colony that I was pleased with myself for finding. I about cried. Also Stan reported that my 8" worm died. T_T Sad times.

I also told my mom about Maine when she called last night. I told her about the sea cucumber, and how it turns itself inside out after a while. Her response:
"I've never had a guy do that to me. I think I would just leave if that happened. 'Okay, we're done here.'"
I love my mom.

PS: if you just type in "9 theme" on Project Playlist, a bunch of Naruto stuff comes up. Oh, 9-tails. I choose you. Except I don't. I just want to listen to music that reminds me of little sack dolls saving the world. Why won't you let me have this?!