Futile Fluctuations in Time

:: 2008 20 September :: 2.15am

Things have been crazy. Good, but crazy.

I filled out my app for degree yesterday and Pichot turned it in to the office today. I'm graduating in May. This is the weirdest, scariest feeling I've felt since those four months in France. And I feel bad eating Tums like candy here.

Classes are going okay. Ceramics class sucks because on a scale from one to a lot, I have negative five art skills. And there are art students in class even though the title specifically says FOR NON-MAJORS. GET OUT OF MY CLASS, ART KIDS, YOU'RE MAKING MY BAD ART LOOK WORSE.

French is god-awful. I shouldn't expect a 400 level French class to be not hard but it is terrible. We watched four versions of Madame Bovary and for our test on Monday he expects us to tell all the movies apart by director's name. I cannot tell them apart. There's the French color one, the American black and white one, the French black and white one and the British miniseries. But if you ask me, vrai ou faux, dans la film de Renoir, Léon a cassé la vitre avec son main, I couldn't tell you.

Everything else is okay. Tai Chi is making my legs hurt. 1776 is playing at Civic theatre and I'm planning on seeing it this weekend.

OH! Will.i.am is coming to my school on Sunday. Crazy, right? I am pumped.

:: 2008 4 September :: 11.20pm

! الحمد لله
I started my last year of college last week. I do not want to talk about how much this is freaking me out.

I am so sorry that I haven't updated lately but things have been crazy. On Mondays and Thursdays, I have class from 9am - 7pm with 5 minutes between classes and work crammed in there too. Otherwise, I have one or two classes.

Here's the rundown:

Mondays/Thursdays
I have Cartography at 9. This class is awesome because I've always wanted to be a useless cartographer and it's taught by Bieneman. Did I ever tell you I had his wife in elementary school? She was my fourth grade teacher. Her mother passed away this week.

At 10:50, I go to work until 1:25.

Don't even get me started on these new kids. They deserve their own post.

At 1:40, I have French Film and Lit. It's only the second week of school and I already am just reading the SparkNotes. The class would be so much less painful with you girls but I'm surviving okay with...the one girl whose name I still don't know after four years and some other girl.

Five minutes after the end of French class, I have Ceramics. It's really just a class to help me calm down but I've already broken two pots and found two very not artistic buddies. I am so not artsy.

Five minutes after the end of feeling dumb, I have Arabic. Which is, quite frankly, awesome. It is difficult but a ton of fun. I feel like such a genius when I get a word right or when I understand what's going on. Also: heritage! I hope I get to talk to my mom's relatives before the kick the bucket because now I know my blood languages (as my mom calls it).

Tuesdays/Fridays
I have a confession to make. Because I couldn't afford the textbook and he stressed homework so much, I dropped my history class. So now I have to take it next semester.

In other news, at 10:50, I have Tai Chi. Which is reaching Folk and Square Dance in awesomeness. The prof learned Tai Chi directly from some famous family who created a form of Tai Chi. He is a hoot. I have a thousand stories from him. He fell off a curb and landed on cement about a year ago and had trouble walking again. His hip hurt when he walked so he couldn't walk across the room until he tried doing Tai Chi. When he walked by doing his Tai Chi moves, his hip didn't hurt any more. Since he is injured, his wife does most of the demonstrations. She also helps him remember how old he is when he adds thirteen years to his age. Both of them are pretty old, 60s and 70s, but they are hilarious. He calls himself Monk and his wife Natalie Teager. Most of the class is taken up by his stories.

On Tuesdays, I have Arabic at 6 (work before that (10:50 to 5) but I have Arabic only Mondays through Thursdays so I just have Tai Chi and work on Fridays.

On Wednesdays, I am not working for the first time in my life. So all I have is Arabic at 6. I sleep, I read, I do homework, I relax.

Overall, this semester is awesome but very stressful. I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I love you all.

3 Inspirations | Enlighten me

taoman1121

:: 2008 29 August :: 12.35pm
:: Music: McCain VP Announcement

So this is what live blogging is like...
I gotta hand it to you, John (or better yet, your campaign managers).

- You waited less than 12 hours (!!) to quell the enthusiasm of Obama's speech to announce your VP pick; I've seen vultures work slower than that. You go steal those headlines, John! Show them how politics is about the people, and not just a game!
- Your pick is a plain-spoken (anagram pun intended), middle-aged female governor from Alaska who shares a name with one of the funniest Monty Python members. Kudos on your successful Hilary-cloning experiment, John! And nice touch picking a brunette... nobody will catch on to that one!
- Not only does your VP pick come from a state whose capital is Juneau (totally boss), she's got a son in the military! Take that, Obama! Michelle, you better ship one of the cute little girls of yours off ASAP.

Standing up to 'politics as usual,' eh? You show them, John. You show them exactly what we are trying to get away from.

2 Inspirations | Enlighten me

1010101

:: 2008 26 August :: 10.30am

So, it was a long crappy summer spent primarily working for Meijer 40+ hours a week, and now my summary of everything that happened since my last update is mostly complete. Oh except for all the crap that happened recently.

So, there was some drama with the guy I was going to room with in the dorms ( I won't get into it but it's kind of rough) so through on odd series of convenient coincidences I wound up rooming with my friend Adam...
...in an apartment!

So yeah I'm out of the dorms officially and now living on my own. I have my own room, two closets(one's a walk in! And it smells like cat pee >_> ), a parking space I don't have to walk 10 minutes to get to, oh and two cats. In short it's pretty friggin' awesome. Of course it turns out MSU isn't wild on students trying to get out of their housing contracts so that was a massive mess that took about 2 weeks to get out of (in fact the paperwork JUST cleared this morning)

My classes look pretty damn awesome so far. One is on performance art (you know, art where you go somewhere and do something weird to make people think and whatnot, like the free hugs campaign, or those annoying 'the truth' ads where they tell people smoking is bad (you know, in case people can't find the surgeon general's warning taking up half the box)).

Then there's my american studies class that I signed up for randomly to fill my College of Arts and Letters requirement. So I arrived there expecting some boring about how america is awesome/is the worst country in the world when I picked up the syllabus. Apparently, as it turns out, it's all about storytelling in pop culture. In other words, it's about pulp novels, comic books, vaudville, movies, tv shows, radio shows and other such things. Superman, Batman, The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the X-men all appear on the syllabus. Tomorrow we'll be watching the show Supernatural in class, and later on we'll be watching an episode of Buffy. Basically the entire time my prof was explaining his class I was trying my hardest not to giggle like a little girl. I also had to strongly resist the urge to dance and sing on my way home.

Today I have logic and statistics for psychology students. Logic was alright. I expect stats to be lame, but meh. And now I'm basically stuck in the library looking for ways to kill time, hence my sudden appearance here after an absence of 4 months.

By the way, I've officially quit Meijer. It only took 4 years or so >_>. I also don't plan on coming back to Rockford next summer, not that I saw any of you this summer really (and that's really not meant to be as bitter as it probably sounds. I honestly really didn't hardly have the time to meet up with anyone anyway).

So yeah. just 2 hours and 10 minutes to kill before my next class. Weeeee...

...maybe I'll ambush a librarian somewhere or find a way to squish them in the motorized shelves....

...or I suppose I could, you know, read.

Take care everyone.

:: 2008 6 August :: 11.59pm

It's weird living with people again.

I have to close doors now when changing or going to the bathroom.

It's cold all the time.

I have to wear clothes.

Oh the sacrifices we make...

2 Inspirations | Enlighten me

:: 2008 6 August :: 1.55am

Well.

I guess that's that.

taoman1121

:: 2008 21 July :: 4.28pm
:: Mood: nostalgic
:: Music: Stars - One More Night

So, there's been official word that they're will be a new 'Lost' ARG (alternative reality game) set to begin at this year's ComicCon in San Diego. Supposedly, they will 'recruiting' Dharma Initiative members. This thing looks to blow the 'Find 815' ARG out of the water. I'm so jealous I'm not going, but at the same time I'm totally excited for another Lost-related time waster. If only this pesky school thing would stay away a little longer.

Summer's already half over, which depresses me. With every day, it's harder to not think about having to go back. I probably should be doing more with my time off, though, as usual, I don't feel like the summer is being wasted. And I finally got a draft of my predisseration turned in, and by this time point next year I finally should have a couple articles to my name, so it's not all bad.

We hosted our second poker night yesterday at the apartment. I had a lot of fun and things went a little faster and a little smoother than last time. And I finally won for a change. Thanks to everyone who came.

I'm off to the library to pick up some more reading material, as if I needed it. If I get inspired, maybe I'll share my "to read' list. That, or I'll enter back into radio silence for another 6 months. Guess we'll have to wait and see together.

(edit 5:32pm) Based on his already impressive resume, especially considering his relatively young age, I'm naming Christian Bale the best actor of his generation. I'm not even going to look at his competition, because I'm fairly confident I don't need to.

:: 2008 20 July :: 3.51am
:: Music: Your 8th Birthday by Cloud Cult

Update
We moved from a two bedroom apartment to a three bedroom apartment in the same apartment complex.

Katti and Oliver are here.

Which is cool because we have a place to live. Not cool because I wanted change. I wanted different.

But that'll just have to wait until after graduation.

Saw Batman. It was great.

Need to do my resume tomorrow.

Love you.

taoman1121

:: 2008 8 July :: 12.17am

E.B. White - Here is New York
"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives it solidity and continuity, but settlers give it passion."

:: 2008 5 July :: 1.09pm

One of my sister's friends died the other day.

He was driving his moped from Kroes to Courtland, right by my parents' house when he was hit by a car. The police say he didn't yield but I think he really just thought he could make it across in time. He wasn't wearing a helmet.

He was 18. He was going to attend Aquinas in the fall. I was getting his information ready for STAR when Ashley found out.

I saw him do stand up at Rockford High School. He was a funny kid.

It's just so sad. He was so young.

4 Inspirations | Enlighten me

:: 2008 30 June :: 12.02am

I got my hair cut this weekend.

It is pretty hot.

Katti said it is an adult version of my asymmetrical haircut from high school. And it is. And that's awesome.

We're watching The Pixar Story and it just makes me want to watch all the Pixar movies again.

I love you all.

P.S. We saw WALL-E this weekend and it was fantastic.

:: 2008 26 June :: 10.07pm

Katti and Oliver are here all weekend (today is only the beginning) and I am pumped.

It is going to be an awesome weekend.

ALSO! I am getting my haircut on Saturday. ALSO! Nick is getting a facial (AT THE SAME TIME) because I told him how awesome it was and called them and set up an appointment and told him he was going.

ALSO! You all = awesome people and I love you.

Happy (early) birthday to all you birthday peeps this weekend. Holla at me and tell me how awesome your birthday weekend is going.

I love you all.

:: 2008 23 June :: 11.10pm

I miss people that I have never met.