jesusphreaq

• Today was very hectic because Michaels was full of good deals. I couldn't help myself and bought two huge DELICIOUS scented candles, one for me and one for my mom. Their flavors are gingerbread and sugar cookies!!

• Designed my wedding invitations last night. Today Twyla showed me hers and I was flabbergasted to see that they were almost EXACTLY the same. Out of all the different kinds of invitations possible!! Wow. Obviously it is the BEST DESIGN EVER TO EXIST, which is why both of us had to pick it. We had also originally picked the same wedding font, but I bowed out of that one gracefully even though I had it first. ;)

• Made stir-fry tonight. When I make supper for my family I'm a bit of a one trick pony. It's a good trick though. Tried to change it up with egg noodles and a sauce called General Tao. With a name like that, how could I go wrong?

• Am enjoying watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles with everyone on Tuesday nights. I actually like the show a lot, and it's a great to be with everyone too.

• Have upped my dosage of Accutane. Hey, do me a favor and tell me if I start acting depressed, okay? Doc says it can happen and that the depressed people are often the last to know that something's wrong. He also said it was good to hear such a sure response that I was not pregnant. That's a huge no-no on this drug, but luckily that just won't be possible. :)

• Am so totally amused by Accutane's effect on me. My body has basically stopped producing oil, which means I'm drying out. (Doc said "Aggressive moisturizing will get you through this.") But the funny thing is, I've always showered according to when my hair starts looking oily, which was usually about two full days after the previous shower. Now? It doesn't even HAPPEN. I now shower once every four days. Ahahahaha, how ridiculous is that? HOWEVER there is a worse part! If I don't shower for four days, by the end of that last day my scalp is white with dandruff! Wow, man, how cool is this!? Ahaha. Well, I might get bored of it now that I'm taking 1.5 as many pills for the next three months though. :\ Winter dries me out enough as it is. Aggressive moisturizing here I come!

• Now I'm off to dance. Ta ta.

UPDATE: I GOT A RASH AT DANCE. IT IS ONLY ON THE HAND THE BOY TOUCHES, NOT ON THE OTHER HAND. SOMEONE IS EXCRETING COOTIES I AM ALLERGIC TO. GROSSSSSS.

ALSO, I THINK ONE OF THE BOYS WAS HITTING ON ME AGAIN.

I have been hired back at Michaels as a part-time seasonal cashier! I went in today and did some paperwork. The manager even said "Good to have you back!" I'm pretty excited. I even have good shifts coming up! I will work 29 hours next week! I don't know what they're paying me yet, but if it's $10/hour that will be allllmost $300!

I know, I know, it's not the job at the newspaper I was hoping for (who might still call back? fingers crossed), but everyone knows that a little work is better than no work! And a little income is better than no income! Ever since my last U of S funding check at the end of August, spending without incoming money has been scary! I don't like watching the numbers in my bank account only go down, especially when I'm supposed to be saving up for a HOUSE. O_O Gah!

Mel and I went shopping today and we looked at scrapbooking papers and thought about invitations, and we even looked at some wedding stuff. Weddings are so exciting. :D

I've been trying to sleep for two hours now :( But there's just too much pain. I've taken 600mg of ibuprophen, but am still waiting to hurt less. That's apparently the problem with pills—take them when you're already in pain and they seem to do nothing!

On the bright side, today I am trying out my new Divacup. Hooray!

I know that crampfest isn't really the best time to try something new, but I can't feel the cup at all or any pain of that kind. It's just crampy uterus pain. So... I am feeling hopeful! :)

But.... ughhhhhhhhh. Make it stop. Seriously.


EDIT: I was going to tell everyone how it went, but apparently I forgot to USE the new filter I just made. Argh. This is what I get for posting late at night, in distress! x_x So now, omitting any detail, I shall just say... it was not good. Maybe I'll try again later but not right now. Luckily I am not crampy yet today, and I will bring pills wherever I go for if/when it strikes!

Late last night Philip, Shane and I beat Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time!! And the ending was AWESOME!! I LOVED it. So much! So of course I had to post about it! I loved the characters and the character development and the voice-over. Being used to playing E for Everyone games, it was a treat to play something that wasn't dumbed down or cheesy in any way. I'm looking forward to the movie and I really hope that they keep the main skeleton of the plot intact.

After the first one, we're all excited to see what happens to the Prince next, but we also decided that the one-player action adventure isn't very good for group gaming. For the most part the three of us had a good time, but Mattea didn't play, and often I felt that I was falling behind because I needed more practice and play time than the boys did. We all knew it would be better to play something that involves everyone. So I'm excited to bring the four-player RPG Tales of Symphonia in as our next choice! (It's still one person walking around as group avatar, but everyone fights in battle simultaneously!) I have a few misgivings about it though. Like I said, PoP is like the first game I've played that was actually slated for my age group, and the natural dialogue and accessible characters are automatically engaging. Tales, at its heart, is terribly cheesy and sometimes even childish, and although I've always loved that, it might bore the boys a little. Ultimately I'm a different kind of gamer than they are. Not that I didn't enjoy jumping off pillars and running along walls, but I wasn't terribly good at it, and I usually like to play the games where I talk to a lot of townspeople to understand where I should be going and what's going on in the world. The boys, vice versa. So I hope no one minds that we're going to be playing a game that's at least twice as long and with ten times more plot. There are still puzzles! The fighting is top-notch for RPGs! The characters are super great and I love all of them!!!

Man, aside from revamping the layout of night_lands , I did diddly squat today. (Who came up with diddly squat, and how on earth did it stick?) Plus it was kinda cloudy. All in all I feel pretty lame, because I wanted to work on my paper and I kind of panicked or something and just didn't do it.

Okay self! Here's the plan.

• I will set my alarm for 10:30, because going to bed at two and waking up at noon is ridiculous. The last week has been ridiculous and it's so over.
• I will read my bible in bed. 'Cause if I don't do it in the morning, it won't get done. I'm starting Gen 1:1 tomorrow.
• I will eat cereal with a banana.
• I will get dressed and go for a WALK, thus forcing the blood to flow and the energy to rise so I'll feel like being productive!
• I will clean my room.
• I will even eat LUNCH tomorrow. That almost never happens.
• I will spend the rest of the day fixing up and finishing my paper so it can be sent to my readers.

Huzzah! Wish me luck, everyone!

I'm getting stuff accomplished and that makes me happy. I finished my gallery wall this week.



I've also been working on making birthday presents and grooving to new albums by Relient K and Thousand Foot Krutch. Getting things finished makes me feel like less of a loafer. My supervisor still hasn't gotten back to me about my master's project rough draft, so I'm sitting in limbo. Don't get me wrong, I love the free time—I've read novels and canned salsa and woken up at noon. Well, honestly I don't much like waking up at noon. I don't know why I keep getting to bed at like 2:30. I've really gotta break that habit.

Last night I remembered someone I've forgotten for a long time, and when I remembered I suddenly missed him a lot. Riley. I'm planning on getting my next couple of chapters finished in the next couple of days. I'm sorry that Night Lands has been stalled for so long. Jordan, you said you had something you wanted to ask me about, which is why you're not posting? Maybe we should have a Night Lands writing night. xD Bring our laptops and type and drink iced tea.

Philip and I finished watching the series Firefly and only have the movie left. In the end I feel dissatisfied with it. Firefly is kind of a platypus of a show—it can't decide what it wants to be. I prefer Dollhouse, which we had a watching-party for last Tuesday, and I'm excited for season 2 of it.

Oh, and if I'm going to mention the events of last week, I have to bring up the Kaiser skype. :D Shelley did a great job of documenting it through screencap. It was a great day. I've been having fun playing Kaiser lately. We should always do that. xD

Well, there are nebulous things I've been waiting to say, but maybe next time. I'm looking forward to the dance tonight!

BY THE WAY GUYS I READ SOME BOOKS. I read Skinned and Uglies. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Scott Westerfeld's series (Pretties, Specials, Extras). And I want to read the rest of Robin Wasserman's, but the sequel (Crashed) just came out and it's not even at the library yet and when it gets there nine people get it before me and I just don't wanna buy it in hardcover.

I am reorganizing my bookcase. My bookcase has been a mess for some time. And reorganizing it makes me happy.

And you see I have to fill all these HOLES!

Because I gave Melanie pretty much a whole shelf's worth of books. Like... 25 or so. Ahahahaha.

I know I shouldn't give people so many books at once but I CAN'T HELP MYSELF.

The whole time I was like "YOU HAVEN'T READ THE THIEF/STARGIRL/ELLA ENCHANTED/HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE ETC?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU." Bahahahaha.

It makes me so excited to lend books to people. Oh Mel, I can't wait for you to read them, and then we will DISCUSS THEM.

And Jordan, I hope you're enjoying my FMA manga!

Does anyone out there have my copy of The Tower at Stony Wood?

It also helps that I got rid of a lot of university books at the buybacks.

Today has been moody, but I'm on the upswing at the moment. Life is exciting!

All I have left are my intro and conclusion.

But more importantly, how did I live all my life disliking tomatoes?

Toasted tomato sandwiches (made with two pieces of toast, some butter, and a huge amount of very thinly sliced tomato from the garden) are the most delicious delicious delicious. So delicious.

Tomorrow I will be emailing a few people who have promised to help me proof my paper. I'll also post a copy of it on LJ for anyone who wants to read it and give me some comments! So you can expect that update tomorrow.

In conclusion...

toasted tomato.

I'm serious.

The first notes of electronic pop rock twitch your mouth into a smile. The percussion comes in, then the vocals. The repeated chant of the first line soon has you singing along.

Don't bury me, I'm not yet dead
Not a walking zombie with no head
Not a Stepford wife made to obey
Don't want to go through life that way

You're smiling at the lyrics, but as you round the corner of your block you're hit by the stink of tar. It reminds you of that saying around here, that our four seasons are winter, still winter, almost winter and roadwork. September is a mix of almost winter and roadwork, you think.

I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive, I'm alive, gonna live that way
I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive and I'm gonna live today

You gear up now that the curves are done with and you're on a straight stretch. You're more of a spinner now than a pusher, but all this slack means some of your pumping is for nothing. You start realizing that pushers have a faster average speed, so you click your back shifter two higher. Besides, the quick beat makes your muscles want to move in time.

Do robots dream of electric sheep?
I need to live my dreams, not just in my sleep
I've been holed up here, but it's time to leap
I need to make my move while I've air to breathe

When your earbud falls out, you try to fasten it back in more snugly, but the light changes and you have to kick off the curb and shove your sucker back into your mouth. The candy apple sucker is all the way back from Plunge camp, and you feel a little guilty about that because it was the last one they had, and you didn't even eat it at camp. Should have left it there for someone else to enjoy then, you suppose.

Don't give me drugs, no Novocaine
I must be alive 'cause I still feel pain
We were born with wings
We were made to fly
We were meant to live while we're still alive

You are flying, that's for sure. Maybe not to the perspective of the cars, but if you were in a school zone you'd almost be speeding, and that's a lot for a bike. The white stick is now clamped between your palm and the handlebar, empty, and you're sucking on the tangy green candy core. Your fingers are ready above the brakes, but when you can see around the overpass the coast is clear, so without slowing down you swing toward that little crack in the sidewalk, worn smooth by so many bikes.

I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive, I'm alive, gonna live that way
I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive and I'm gonna live today

You're speeding along that wide wide asphalt sidewalk to school now, still grooving, thinking that's what you like about Superchick. They're so darn upbeat, to think that every day can be new, that you can always renew your way of thinking. You're thinking about turning over a new leaf and what an odd metaphor that is, thinking it feels more like your mind is a clogged eavestrough and the leaves at the bottom are black and rotten. But with the sun this bright, you know there's more to it than that.

I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive, I'm alive, gonna live that way
I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive and I'm gonna live today

I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive, I'm alive, gonna live that way
I'm alive, I'm alive, that's what I say
I'm alive and I'm gonna live today

I'm sitting in my office. I'm on the university grounds for the first time in over a month. It's the second day of classes and the grounds are bustling. The smells of the buildings are familiar yet strange to me. I feel like I'm in this weird limbo, not quite a student anymore.

I've been avoiding everyone in the English department, but I finally came in to do some paperwork. Give the English office the receipts from the World Science Fiction Convention, which already seems a long time ago. Eventually they're going to give me the $250 they promised for me to give a paper at the conference. The U of S gave me $350, which adds up to $600 and pretty much pays for my plane ticket, if not any other expenses. The conference was so worth it though. In a lot of ways.

It also certainly solidified my master's project for me. The paper I wrote for the conference is almost a skeleton for the project, which really helped me define the boundaries and what I wanted to say. As well, having seen the movie Primer, all the discussions I had with people in my panels on time travel, and my continued correspondence with Mr. Leeper who facebooked me under the subject heading "You pwned me?" after finding his name on Jordan's Livejournal have all added greatly to my project and changed it from what I thought it might become.

For all those who are wondering when I'm going to be done my master's project, I can tell you I've been working on it every day. It's supposed to be 25-30 pages long, but everyone knows they just wrote that there so they'd have something to put there. It can be whatever. At the moment it's 5222 words, and I have a lot more I want to say. The end is in sight, however, and I'm guessing I'll be finished the first draft by this time next week.

I am late on it. I am behind. Technically my deadline was this time last month. But this summer I had a great summer school class, and then I had an excellent canoe trip with the Siemens family, and then a wonderful family vacation, and then a fantastic time at Worldcon, and then I volunteered at an awesome summer camp for a week. Yes, I do have to register and pay for another term of school, even though I'll barely use the term, but would I rather have dropped one of those experiences or worked all day every day in the spaces between? No. I'm satisfied that this is exactly the summer I needed. Especially now that so many of my friends are leaving to live in other provinces or even countries. I'm glad I got to go to parties and spend time with people while I could. And I'm glad I could take a bit of a rest in the middle of a full year of school.

Well, time to get back to the paper. At the moment I'm writing about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which, by the way, is number 5 on Cracked.com's 8 Classic Movies That Got Away With Gaping Plot Holes. When I do finish the paper, I'd love it if anyone out there would want read my first draft. Just think, this will be the last essay I'll ever need anyone to help me proofread! And don't worry, I'll still want to proofread your essays after I'm done. :D Anyway, I'll just need people to tell me if it makes sense and if there's anything confusing in it. Thanks a lot in advance.

I was starting to go to sleep when that weird word-associative mood came upon me and I knew I had to start writing. This is a guessing game. If you're reading this, you can bet that one of these stanzas is about YOU. Yes, don't look around to see if I'm looking at someone else, I am talking to you! :D Please go on and guess yourself and/or as many others as you like. Comments are screened. Oh, one more tip—I ran this through a randomizer so order would mean nothing.

:D Good luck~

EDIT. You can guess all the stanzas that you like, but I won't tell everyone an answer until the person the stanza belongs to guesses his/her own! When you guess your own, I'll bold the stanza and the answer will be revealed upon mouseover ^_____^

Ah, but you're winter, quiet snowflake crystal
     chill of fate & choice wrapped into one
     hand purposeful but uncertain
Diamond dust in the wind.

You're pink & everyone knows it,
     You're like a summer sun shower that brightens & shines.
     your toes pointed & your brush in motion
     always search for that curtain to pull away & reveal.

You are flowers, my dear girl,
     (the ones in the backyard, the cosmos)
     you are bright & standing straight to the sun high
Your smile is like light on water, like the glint
     of glass before your eyes.

You're flash flood, explosion, all that consumes
     all seasons, all stages of life & death
     & galaxies blooming into colors you can't stop staring at.

Now what are you? Fleeting strong like a runner
     stamina & determination & this oldness like rust or dust or old car smell
     something STABLE & even unyielding
you'll put your muddy footprints through time & smile.

& you're like toffee, you armchair-adventurer,
     You're consistent, always showing the same face
You're like red & green deep ribbons at Christmas
     the smile like it's always holidays.

You're like FREEZE
     like Red Light Green Light & checkers
     like chiaroscuro & old film noir cheesiness
or maybe just like cheese
     the kind that's just the right zesty that everyone likes.

Now you, you're zippers & velcro,
     A neat ending that's different & unexpected
     You're sparks & sometimes even fuel igniting
You're like interlocking circles
     moving forward into this lightning blue.

You, you're yellow, like stars cut out of construction paper
     strung in careful disarray
Like words on notebook paper that are torn out & turned into
     paper airplane birds that woosh out of hand.

You are cotton candy R A I N B O W spraypaint splatter
     a rush of color & then gone
     a hummingbird with a tongue so long it wraps around your brain,
you taste flickering before you vanish.

Who are you, minty? This dark flash with a brilliant stripe
     capes & fishnet stockings & feathers
You are the drums & strings but most of all threads
     like thin black hairs in one thick shear.

You, mmmmm you, never mind. :D
Oh fine, I'll say it,
     you're the deepest color I can't name, I never can
     who knew it could be this, all shades of brown
     & gold, like veins all shot through & undone
like the softest kind of stone.

Who are you, leaf-made, where to start!
     Could you get any greener?
     Unfurl any farther?
Your fragrance is a spice on the wind
     even as you are the tide.

Why are you like purple today, like amethyst pansies,
     I don't think you usually are, but it'll do
You're the background music that's just right for talking
     You're sensible shoes with a flair.

You're like the geode
     like patterns of crystallization anyone can only guess at
You're like the burning afterimage of fireworks & glowsticks
     you're this laugh that we wouldn't be whole without.

You are fireflies, myriad slow blinking
     you are tight fabric without error
     woven for strength & protection
You are the full rose.

Indigo blue
     filled with diamonds and tails
Vellum and ink
     in sun-kissed rooms
A lighthouse in troubled waters.

Trust in Yahweh and do good;
     Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in Yahweh,
     And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit everything you do to Yahweh.
     Trust Him, and He will help you.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
     And the justice of your cause as the noonday.

Be still in the presence of Yahweh,
     And wait patiently for Him to act.
Don’t worry about evil people who prosper;
     Don't fret about their wicked schemes.

Camp was a blast. It tired me out, but it was great. It was also really fun to bring my Arthurian theatrical expertise to the table ;) This year's theme was medieval and we did all kinds of intriguing hilarious awesome skits. I played the evil witch Nimueh and looked super cool. Also Philip somehow accidentally kneed me in the face during the finale three days ago, and although the pain and swelling have gone down, it is now visible as a greeny-yellow bruise on my cheek. Thanks dear! xD

EDIT. I love this photo that one of my very favorite campers just put up on Facebook.


And yes, that is a boy in the pink princess dress. His identical twin was also in a dress. /EDIT.

I came home to a fixed computer that now works. They had to replace my hard drive and it would have cost almost $2000 to retrieve my data. LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ANYONE OUT THERE WHO DOESN'T REGULARLY BACK UP. My computer was working fine and then suddenly the drive was toast. Good thing my back up is really recent. Sadly, though, I forgot to back up my firefox bookmarks or addons or anything, so that's all gone and needs to be replaced (as best as memory can do). Oh also, I lost my list of books I was going to get out of the library when I had time to read again. It's a real shame because I had like fifty novels on there...

I also came home to a mere 36 emails, a vast 129 deviations, and 6 facebook friend requests. I'm probably going to start going through DeviantArt a little at a time rather than trying to get all that out of the way at once. (Surfing dA is a great way to procrastinate my master's project.) As for facebook, I added most of the requests, then did a purge and deleted 25 "friends," bringing me down to a mere 75. I dislike facebook so much sometimes....

Today I ran errands with Shelley, and it was awesome to see her again. We also ate delicious Chinese food in Midtown. When I got home I was disappointed to find out that I'd missed Philip. He was going to surprise me and say goodbye but I wasn't there. Sniffle. He's gone for another five or six days, spending a third week of lifeguarding at another camp. It's too bad he didn't get to see Shelley before he left though, because she'll probably be gone by the time he gets back :(

When I got back from hanging with Shelley Mom asked if I wanted to go to Value Village, so that was an easy way to use up a day I didn't feel like spending working. I bought four sweaters and a simple halter dress :D New clothes make me happy.

As for LJ, I have like thirty or something posts to read, so I'll start that first. Yawn... I just really needed to recharge after camp. I have so many stories, but a lot of them are the personal kind that I don't feel like sharing on the internet.

Hopefully I can get working on my project tomorrow!

... now that I'm trying to fill out the "music" form of the LJ post, I realize I've lost all my iTunes statistics. Now we'll never know how many hundreds of times I listened to "In My Arms" and "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" and "Learning to Breathe." :( ah wells.

EDIT 2. So I'm uploading all my photos to facebook and I'm googling but I just can't find an answer. Does anyone know why sometimes you can see other people's albums but you can't comment on them? Apparently my google-fu isn't strong enough to find the answer. Because I wish I could set this to "Who can see this? — Friends of Friends" but also allow friends-of-friends to comment.

Hey dudes, I leave for camp in an hour and I'm gone till Monday the 24th! Please pray for me and my campers while I'm away! :)

P.S. Some people mentioned that they wanted to see the rest of my talk, so the other half of it is on youtube now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJGUrqC5QiM

Anticipation in Montreal was a great convention. There was a masquerade (the costumes were AMAZING and the skits were hilarious), and there were dances (we only went to one, and they were playing techno and I so don't know how to dance like that, but Megan pulled me up there and we had fun), and there were famous authors (cough Megan followed Neil Gaiman everywhere cough). Basically, we went to panels all day, which are 1-1.5 hour talks. I was actually part of three panels on time travel, so I sat at the front with a placard and spoke into a microphone.



My first panel was on the 2004 movie Primer, which I had never seen before. I watched it again last night and it made SO MUCH more sense. 0_0 That movie is TRIPPY. Now that I've seen it again, on a level of trippyness I rate it just under Donny Darko. Anyways, that wasn't the greatest panel because I hadn't been able to see the movie beforehand, so I didn't have a whole lot to contribute to what my fellow panelist (do I call him Mark? or Mr. Leeper?) had to say. This Leeper fellow knew a lot about time travel—but didn't quite remember what it was like not to know a lot about time travel, so in that panel and the next one I was trying to explain his statements to the audience.

So in my second panel ("Forward Into the Past") we talked about time travel in general, and when someone asked about changing the past Leeper went straight to talking about the multiverse, so I backtracked and explain why he'd done that, and define that the fate model he was talking about was called block universe theory and here's how it worked... At the end the other guy on the panel asked us what time travel movie we would recommend to the audience.
Leeper: "Oh, definitely The Time Machine."
Me: "WHAT! Wait, which one?"
Leeper: "Oh the first of course."
Me: "No!"
Everyone: O_O
Me: "It was TERRIBLE."
Everyone: O_O, laughs in amused horror
Me: "I have seen this movie three times for my Master's project paper and it gets worse every time I see it!"
Other guy: "How so?"
Me: "The directors were so short-sighted! How could they think the English language would survive 800,000 years into the future? Also in the movie the time traveller ABANDONED his own time in order to live in the future with the Eloi who were like malleable children to him. It was like he was playing God in the garden of Eden! It was sick!"
Everyone laughs in more horror
Other guy: "So what movie would you recommend?"
Me: "Oh that's easy. Back to the Future. Hands down."

After I kind of hilariously pwned Leeper, the talk was over. Some guy came up to me and said that some of our ideas had probably been over the audience's heads. I was sorry then that I hadn't used that panel to market my own panel as being a simpler explanation. Anyway, this guy said he edited a SF magazine and I should submit short stories to it, and also wanted to know if I would look over an article he's writing on Back to the Future for an anthology. I said I could look at it in September. Also he had an Irish accent. After that Megan said I should wear my engagement ring on my left hand instead of my right. xD

Saturday was the best day. It didn't matter that I hadn't advertised the panel at the other panels because the room was completely full and people were standing in the back. (Jordan estimates that there were 50 people there, but I thought it might have been closer to 40.) Anyways, after my first two talks on time travel I was beginning to feel like the ideas in my conference paper were too simple. I was really nervous until I stood up, but then after that I was fine.



Now that I'm watching it on video I see all these problems with it... but at the time my talk went really well, and the audience actually laughed a lot, which I'd never really expected. When I'd practiced the talk before, I'd made the jokes but hadn't expected to have to pause for laughter. So that was a happy surprise! Afterwards lots of people asked me questions and like five or more guys trailed me out to ask me more questions. Yes I was wearing the ring on my left hand. xD Anyways, for the rest of that day all the panels I went to watch were really great, and the masquerade that night was amazing. My favorite was "A Public Service Announcement for Video Game Designers." It was amazing. The Youtube does not do it justice. You should have seen her face. She had the most amazing snarl going on. It was incredibly hilarious, and she had easily the longest cheers after her act. I think she won "Best in Show" or something for it. Anyways, if you search youtube for "Worldcon sketch" most of the masquerade entries are there, but that's the best one.

So I heard successful authors talk about folklore in fantasy and science fiction, or collaborating with other authors (thinking oooh, what are the nightlands ramifications for this) or about invented languages or worldbuilding—all day for a whole week! I learned a lot but by the end of the week my head was spinning. So when the convention ended Monday afternoon it was great to go out with Megan, her mom, and Jordan to see some sights, such as an amazing tea place and various cool stores in walking distance. (There was this medieval boutique called La Table Ronde that we both bought sweet shirts from. :D) Anyways, Megan posted lots of sweet photos on Facebook of our time there. Oh also on Monday we cosplayed FMA again. Megan was Sensei but this time I was Al instead of Ed (since I have red hair instead of blonde this time around.) The only recognition I got was someone calling "HI ED!" lol. Close enough.

So. What other news should I post to LJ? I got home and it turns out my computer, my macbook, my dear Clarice, isn't working. Apparently the computer can't recognize its own harddrive. This happened to Shelley once and she got it fixed, so I have high hopes... but that was really depressing to find out. I wasn't having a very good day so Shelley took me out for DQ. She's so nice. And after that Shelley, James, and I watched Primer. And it made so much more... wait. I already said this. Somehow... it seems fitting that everything should circle around. Some kind of time travel irony there.

Anyways, so here I am, needing to work a LOT on my Master's project. On the one hand, it seems like I shouldn't have gone to WorldCon because I have so much work to do, but on the other, I learned a lot there and it really helped me crystallize where I want my paper to go. I have a lot of ideas... But now I have to take my computer in. The whole computer's backed up, of course, and recently (since the stupid freaking external drive failed not so long ago, I had to buy a new one and back everything up all over again), so I still have all my work, but I can't work on it without a computer. I guess I'm going to go to the house of my aunt and grandma and use their computer to work on my paper, since I am certain that I couldn't do all this work on the family computer in the kitchen. Way too much distraction everywhere. I wish I could borrow Philip's laptop, but he's away at camp this week and it's just too awkward to call the camp and ask him and then phone his family and ask them... Anyways, in another week I'll be gone to volunteer as a cabin leader at that camp as well, so I have to work SUPER HARD on the paper before then. AND buy the craft supplies for that week to teach crafts. Oyyyy.

Oh, and lastly, before I left I was going to put up another one of those announcements (tee hee), but I forgot, and then I tried to get Shelley to do it for me except I explained it totally badly. xD Anyways, my point is, I'm SO LATE on this one I feel bad posting it, but it still isn't as late as Shane & Mattea's engagement announcement (they were secretive! cheaters!), so here it finally is. I tried to use rainbow to capture the sweet cotton-candiness of their amazingly-cute relationship, and if you can further imagine syrup dripping from the words that'll be about right.

Twyla and Paul are DATING!!!
Once again, many many congratulations you two!

Megan and I watched the first nine episodes of the FMA reboot. We realized the only reason we liked it was because it reminds us of the first anime. I guess the anime really has always been better than the manga... every time the new anime made a nod to the manga we resented it. Usually this came in the form of people being chibi-fied during a moment the first anime had made serious. Also, Megan's friend who burned the DVDs for us promised us "fanservice." However, we cannot make sense of that claim, because I'm not sure we've ever seen Ed shirtless, only Alex Louis Armstrong, and I can't even count how many times he's torn his shirt off for no reason. Ugh. What.

In other news, we decided to do a day of cosplay at Worldcon. This year I'm going to be Al instead of Ed, since my hair is no longer blonde nor long enough to braid well. Of course, this means I'll have to draw on my white gloves (with what, I wonder?...) and I'll have to sew that black and white shirt. Easy enough.

There, a new icon that I'm sure will get lots of use in the future. That pretty much has suited my feelings for the last while...

My external hard drive crapped out today. For no reason. Warranty is over. WHAT.

I have been reading forums. Apparently "Trekstor" was not the brand to invest in. Does anyone have opinions? Recommendations of a better brand name? I'm likely just going to get the cheapest thing out there. External hard drives are expensive. D: waaaaaaaaaaaah.

edit: btw, found the receipt, I've only had it for a year and a half. So cheesed.

From Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time by J. Richard Gott III:

To someone hoping to find a time machine in order to go to the past to save a lost loved one, the most comforting thing I can say is that, as far as we understand today, this can only be accomplished if the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics is true. And if that is true, then there is already a parallel universe in which your loved one is okay. That's because all the possible universes exist. Unfortunately, you are just in the wrong one.

In other news, I recently came across an ad for a free couch, if you can bend time and/or space. Of course, that's an irrelevant distinction since "Scientific people know very well that Time is only a kind of Space." That quotation is from Wells' Time Traveller, who may have talked about the space-time continuum but certainly didn't follow its rules. But really, even if you could go back in time and stop them from putting the couch in the house (which I assume you'd do by trying to convince the poster that a print-out of the ad really is written by him or her in the future, with the help of current currency or other additional proof), what are you going to do with it? It probably isn't going to fit in your time machine. Give it to your past self? "Hey, check it out, free couch. Just don't forget to pick it up in..." Hey, the poster didn't even mention when he or she bought the couch. Tsk. I guess you'd have to contact him or her to quadrangulate the position of the couch in space-time. Anyway, if you did manage to convince the poster of all that, and convince him or her to post the ad in the future, congratulations, you didn't break the chain of causality and managed to get the couch without destroying time.

Unless of course, you only got a couch from a parallel universe, in which case the poster of your universe is still screwed.

But you still got the couch.

Audrey:
So, thought I NEEDED to share this
Chris is all watching Snakes on a Plane, but it’s on like PBS for him
And he says that Samuel L. Jackson is sick of those monkey-fighting snakes on that Monday to Friday plane
Apparently… that’s how they ACTUALLY censored it…
O_O

Me:
LOLLLLLLLLLL. I thought usually they go with mother trucker?
I think my favorite was when someone decided to dub "scumbag" as "crumbag." How is that better?!

Audrey:
The best is Die Hard II
When he kills the bad guy at the end, he says “yippie-kai-yay mother f***er” but in the censored version, it’s “Yippie-kai-yay mister falcon” lol

Me:
AHAHAHAHAHA. WE SHOULD START A COLLECTION. THIS IS AWESOME.

Audrey:
Lol
You should just start calling people Mr. Falcon when you are upset with them, and see if anyone ever catches the reference.