By Hook or Crook

This has been one of the most stressful holidays I've ever had.  Not to mention almost having my eardrum blown out but a fucking stupid little shit cousin that doesn't listen when we tell her not to point or get close to people when you set off a loud confetti popper.  Little shit set it off right behind my right ear.  Still hurts.  Then this morning on the way back to Austin I get my very first speeding ticket by the biggest asshole cop in existence.  Gave me shit about everything he could.

I'm exhausted, stressed, frustrated, and all around upset.

I've been watching some show on the History Channel about the decay of the United States' infrastructure (levees, dams, aquaducts, roads, sewers, etc.).

Very interesting and kind of depressing how Americans tend to put this kind of important stuff at the back of the line even though we'll greatly regret it when everything's gone to shit.  I'm basically not planning on moving to the east of the Mississippi any time soon.  Old pipes + bad maitenance = DANGEROUS water.  I never realized how lucky I was growing up with extremely clean well water.  We never had to really worry about all things in this show.  Unfortunately, there are so many people that don't have those kind of clean natural resources anymore. 

It's scary how dependent we are, especially in the cities, on electricy.  It runs nearly everything, even the movement of water.  I'm glad my mom makes me keep bottled water around the house and I learned early on to always keep candles and flashlights.  I do know that if there was some kind of 'apacolypse' I definitely wouldn't be one of the first to die, (unless by accident or someone else's fault.)  I'd pack up my shit and trek home where it's safe.

Interesting results from another online personality quiz...

( How the quiz says I describe myself (some of these are eerily accurate, while others are not): )

Squenix, when did you start hiring teenage girls that read too much bad fanfiction to write your Kingdom Hearts games?  I am very unimpressed.  Why do you keep trying to make your obviously gay characters straight with crazy bitches?  It doens't work for your side of the arguement.  :[  Not at all.

Been kind of depressed and frustrated with life recently.  I strongly dislike sharing an apartment with people, and I really hope I can find my own place next year.  The job's going great, but I definitely do not want to be in this kind of environment for the rest of my professional life.  Which is difficult to get around since I have no idea what I want to do with my life.  I'd actually be okay with being a housewife if I could ever find a man of interest.  Austin sucks for that.  All the men are gay, (even when they say they aren't), or are already happily married/taken.  It's frustrating and lonely.  I feel like I'm drowning in this place.  I'm just waiting for something to happen.

On a more positive note, I started rereading the Vladimir Taltos series by Steven Brust.  Mostly because I wanted a refresher before I buy the two newest novels in the series, and also because I missed it.  It's been so long since I've read it that I was happily surprised to find that my favorite book in the series, Taltos,  is the first one in the series chronologically which is how I read it.  Brust wrote them out of chronological order on purpose, but the only one I've read out of chronological order was Dragon, which was the first book by him I read/bought.  Very confusing but definitely grabbed hold of me.

I love this series and it's definitely a pick-me-up, just for the nostalgia and Vlad's snark.  I also wanted to review some of the information to see if my really old idea for a fanfiction would work somewhat canonically.  It was crack, but I like to keep my details straight where I can.  I'd actually like to revisit it and possibly start it up again.  Just thinking about it makes me giggle in a very fangirlish fashion.

I really wish there was more fanfiction on the web for this series.  I found some a few years ago, but now the site they were on is permanently down.  :(

It's been a rough past few days. Had an emotional breakdown today. Still have a paper to write for stupid anthropology and there's not a break in sight until I get Home Friday night. Here's hoping the rest of the week goes okay.

HOMG.  It's been so long since I posted.  Ugh.  Too tired and too much to talk about.  Many things happening.

Here's a list to remind me what I need to talk about later.  It will be a hell of a post.

• Job - going great
• Room mate issues - the good and the bad
• school - ugh
• family - awesome
• health - ugh X 2
• how much I love food
• plans for the future

Holy poop!  They have a show called "Cats101" on Animal Planet now! (Spinoff of Dogs101)  It's probably been airing for a while, but I just saw my first episode tonight and the first breed shown was Scottish Fold's!  My absolute favorite.  And everything mentioned just made me want one even more.  *sigh*  Some day...

This was an interesting test.  I'm actually surprised how accurate it is.  Here's my results.


I also apparently am most like the Archangel, Raphael.  Lulz.

So.  Watchmen.  Didn't particularly like the comic or the movie.  Parts of the story were incredibly predictable and I didn't really get into any of the characters.  The only one I liked was Rorschach, but only the movie version.  It was really weird watching Jeffrey Dean Morgan play the Comedian, especially since I first saw, and love him, as John Winchester.  Daddy Winchester would never do those horrible things!

I know the comic is set in the 80s and probably written around the same time, and it shows.  Extremely cliche 80s storyline, characters, and plot elements.  Blegh.  The soundtrack was also very oddly compiled, it was very badly matched with the scenes.  And the sex/nakedness was a little too over emphasized.

Also, the waiter we had at the Alamo Drafthouse was crappy.  One of my friends and I have come to the conclusion that several of the more "indie" places in Austin will hire anyone that looks "cool", "weird", or "indie" even if they suck at that line of work.  Unfortunately, I had already come to this conclusion when I was looking for a job last summer, I just look too damn normal.

Holy crap.  I'm never going to Africa.  A Boomslang's bite will make you hemorrhage to death.  You basically begin to bleed from every orifice while your internal organs also start to bleed out.  It can take up to 48 hours to finally die.

Luckily there is an anti-venom, but it only exists in one city.  That sucks.

Finished editing my Japanese composition and the surprise!homework, but now I have to start and finish a seven page paper analyzing the "Spring II" section of the Kokinshu for my Nature and Environment in Pre-modern Japan.  Yeah.  I really have no idea how this is going to turn out...

Howard Johnson's new slogan:  "Go Happy.  Go Hojo."


That just creeps me the hell out.  *shivers*

1. Put your MP3 player on shuffle play.
2. Write down the first lines of the first twenty songs.
3. Post the poem that results.
4. The title is the first line of song twenty-one.

( Read more... )

Squall line for the win.  Storm's are freaking awesome!

Taking my GRE tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

P.S.  It's a good thing the testing center called to let me know that the website was a douche bag and the test is actually at noon instead of one like it originally told me.

Don't Argue With a Gay Flight Attendant

So I'm feeling better now.  I think it really was the medication, and not that I'm going bipolar.  Unfortunately I did wake up at 7 this morning all on my own and it's weird.  At least I have plenty of time to work on stuff today, of which there's a lot! 

A few things that are being addressed at this time:

• I'm taking my GRE on Tuesday.  I have absolutely no idea how this will go.  I haven't taken a math class in four years.  D:
• I'm having a REALLY hard time in Japanese even though it's only the second semester.  I'm pretty good at the written homework and the quizzes, but whenever I'm called on during class my mind blanks.  I feel so stupid and lose more and more confidence every day.  Being depressed didn't help either.  I got so anxious that I started tearing up in class and nearly threw up.  It usually takes a lot to get me that nervous, (it's been years in fact), but once again I think it was an effect of the medicine.  I was going to drop the language course, but I can't fall down to being a part-time student or I'll stop being on my parent's insurance.  The grammar confuses the hell out of me.
• I'm seriously thinking of taking next school year off.  First of all, I need the extra money.  Second of all, I'm becoming exceedingly frustrated with the graduate programs at UT.  I've realized that the Asian Studies program probably isn't for me.  Plus, that Anthropology: Folklore and whatever program was a total flop.  Can we say 'false advertising'?
• Instead, I'm thinking of going into an Anthropology graduate program, but it will very likely be at a different university.  That means packing up and moving...again.  We'll see how it goes, but it definitely won't be for at least another year.

So now I'm going to read fanfiction, eat breakfast, do homework, work on art projects, study, and do laundry.  Poo on being busy, but yay on it not being too terribly stressful.

EDIT:  So forget about that whole 'getting a lot of crap done today' thing.  I took two Midol this morning to help with my cramps and at about 11AM I fell back to sleep.  I didn't wake up until 2PM.  Lolz.  I did get some of my readings done and finally started the drawing for my trade-off with a friend.  It looks like crap because I have a hell of a time mimicking CLAMP's style.  Ugh.  I think I'll take a break and play Katamari, then start working on my arts/crafts projects after dinner.

Been severely depressed.  I think/hope it's just the birth control (which I'm on to control that pesky monthly problem).  I haven't been this depressed in a really long time and it sucks.  It's affecting everything and I even scare myself with some of the unreasonable thoughts that have run through my head. 

I hope it goes away soon.  :(