Today I have learned many things. Some of these things are useful. Some of them just made me mad. Others had the especial honor of doing both.

Here are some examples:

New Knowledge Numero Uno:
The microwave on the second floor kitchenette in the art building is either overzealous or sadistic, and is therefore trying too hard to cook my food, or is relishing my frustration when I find the crust on my chicken pot pie more than just 'slightly crispy' when there is still TWO MINUTES LEFT on the timer, and I put it in for less than the suggested amount ANYWAY. *seethe*

New Knowledge Numero Dos:
Just for kicks and giggles, I looked up what all my various medications actually, y'know, DO. I'd quote the song and say, "two out of three ain't bad," but the remaining ONE'S a DOOZY. Depakote, my main medication and the one that makes it so you all don't have to deal with me occasionally falling over and making horrendous noises, has side-effects OUT THE WAZOO. Now, don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful to this particular medication for stopping my seizures. It was the last medication the neurologists tried, and this is probably why: Liver damage, as well as a TEN TIMES higher chance of having a baby with an irreversible birth defect like, oh say, NO BRAIN. Also, if a woman is taking it during childbearing years--like me--additional birth defect factors skyrocket. I should also point out that these weren't It's a good thing I wasn't planning on having children.

New Knowledge Numero Tres:
I think David's painting's are following me. Okay, this really isn't a knowledge, but it is creepy. And annoying. No more dead revolutionaries in bathtubs please.

Stolen from kallie_starmist

( La-Dee-Dum, La-Dee-Dee... )

Also, this has replaced the L33t Str33t Boy's 'Masquerade' as the 'stuck-in-the-head-son-du-jour:'

( Iris )

So the fire alarm goes off at a little past ten thirty this morning in Mead. And what was the cause? One of those plastic bowls of Easy-Mac that you can buy in Rao's and other foody type places. Whoever was cooking it left it in the microwave so long that the pasta burned AND THE PLASTIC BOWL WARPED AND MELTED INTO A PILE OF MISSHAPEN GOO. Now, why would you do something like that? These things have TIMES on them; you're only supposed to cook them for short periods. What did they do, hit 'cook' and walk away, thinking they'd be back so soon that they didn't need to specify a time?

IS NOT HOW MICROWAVE COOKING GOES, K TNX.

I refused to be killed by sup-par processed pasta, or the person who would do that. Just sayin'.

So I had a big epic LJ post full of health insurance FAIL and stuffed turkeys and how apparently if you draw in class this automatically makes you an art major, but I forgot it. So I swiped this from fire_my_spirit instead.

( Behold my puzzling taste in music! )

Have fun, all of you. I'm curious to see how many of you know the answers off the top of your heads, disregarding the couple of obvious ones up there.

First off, pork buns are delicious. Go eat some, NOW. *MUNCH*

Second, today was Mountain Day, which means that classes are canceled so we can go hike up the mountain dinky hill that puts on airs. Alternatively, to many people, this means they can go back to sleep and do nothing all day. Well, normal people anyway. Some people actually use it to get ahead on homework, which I consider to be a horrible waste of a perfectly good free day. (Also, a bunch of us arbitrarily decided to go to the Route 9 Diner late last night, ignoring the need for sleep and homework, so Mountain Day came at an excellent time.)

I'd never actually gone up the...hill on Mountain Day before. I did once for Geology class last year. We drove up in a van. A group of us drove up today, but we were dodging the people who were walking like you're supposed to. After taking pictures and attempting to help one friend cope with a crippling fear of heights, we drove back down and proceeded to Modern Myths in Northampton as several people required die for the many games they were in; specifically d10s, as the World of Darkness system requires a HELLA of them. Then we went to the Asian Food Market, where I discovered the pork buns and chocolate ice cream mochi. The mochi is gone. It also was very good. When we returned, we spent a very entertaining couple of hours listening to a very epic Powerpoint on the Hyuuga Clan of Naruto fame given by the Colonel of Snarky Commentary, AKA kallie_starmist. The style of the Powerpoint fell very nicely under her titular description, I might add.

Additionally, during all the driving around we were doing--we got lost on the way to the...hill. (982 feet? Come ON!)--we turned the extremely detailed information cards I am creating for some of the Bella members, complete with fantastical outfits, stats, and weapons, into anime characters...who fight the administration because they have been taken over by evil soul-sucking fiends. Then we talked about fight songs. Did I mention we were geeks? Because I don't think I need to anymore.

And then there was dinner, and getting my butt kicked at a video game and Chorale and Spanish homework and now I have only one day of classes left.


.......*MUNCH MUNCH*

So the first thing I remember from this morning is my alarm clock going off at seven AM...and realizing that I had a SPECTACULAR migraine. My alarm clock is less than a foot from my head. This is not a particularly fun way to wake up. I used it as an excuse to skip gym class and sleep it off; and I DID feel much better when I woke up--though by this point bed was so warm and comfy that I had to drag myself out to Spanish class. After Spanish class--which ends at the beginning of the infamous Prospect Lunch Rush, the noise in the dining hall precipitated another small migraine. I thank the new curtains from keeping light sensitivity from being a problem, and it went away--mostly--before Shakespeare class. Which was more boring than usual, except for Professor Brownlow's story about frozen sponges.

HOWEVER! Upon journeying to the far-too-crowded Card Services office after Shakespeare class, I learned that the reason my One-Card has been neglecting to let me in in the wee hours of the morning is because it STILL THOUGHT I WAS LIVING IN DICKINSON. At this point I was far beyond feeling anything but relief over having it fixed, but the lady in the office was properly indignant for me, as the new system Res Life is using that screwed me over has apparently caused many other problems.

.....There is a pinching ache in the back of my head, so I'm going to turn off my lights and lay and bed and hope it goes away before Chorale. Because I'm not gonna be able to sing with a migraine.

Tagged by rhaella Never been tagged for anything before on Livejournal, really. Also, it includes fandom questions, so this shall be...interesting.

Anyways, here's how it works:

A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz & those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people


1. What are your nicknames?
Katie, which I go by and like. Kate, which only my father and other select relatives are allowed to call me, and Kat, which your calling me will result in...consequences.

2. What do you do before bedtime?
At the present, play Spore until way too late. Usually I just check all my tabs one more time. Sometimes I watch stuff.

3. What fandom(s) are you most into at the moment?
I'm not really a fandom person per say...I don't read or write fanfiction, but I do enjoy various anime, manga, and video games. I guess I would say that I'm just a geek who likes a wide variety of things.

4. What is your favorite scent?
Lilac, though I am extremely particular to mint, rain, lavender, grass, and lightning. Yes, I can smell lightning. It tickles.

5. What's your favorite game ever?
Tales of Symphonia if we're talking consoles. (I'm playing Kingdom Hearts right now, and I'm loving it, but I keep getting stuck.) Otherwise...I'm fond of most board games, especially if they give you the chance to laugh at the other players.

...What?

6. What book you are reading now?
For Love of Mother-Not, by Alan Dean Foster. For the BILLIONTH TIME.

7. Do you trust easily?
I'm gonna lean towards no on this one considering how hard it was to make friends in primary and secondary school.

8. What was your first big fandom?
Digimon. Back when I thought it was really neat how creative the animators had been with the art style.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Drama and know-it-all classmates make Katie a sad/angry person.

10. Do you have any eternal fandom? a Fandom that you not really even in there again, but
still...can't leave it?
...Digimon. But not after the second season.

11. What's one childhood item that you still have with you today?
My great-grandmother made me a baby quilt before I was born. It's blue and white.

12. What websites do you visit daily?
A plethora of webcomics, Deviantart, Facebook, Livejournal, Twitter, Lolcats, Youtube, Wikipedia, Onemanga, Listverse, and my e-mail.

13. Who are currently the most important people to you?
Family and friends.

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Smart, quirky, a great artist, and a lover of many fandoms.

15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?
Where is Your Boy Tonight? by Fallout Boy. I don't actually own the song, or anything by Fallout Boy, I've just HEARD A CERTAIN AMV PLAYED OVER AND OVER SO MANY TIMES IN MY VICINITY.

16. What’s your favorite item of clothing?
Comfy pants or the grey wraparound sweater my aunt and uncle gave me.

17. You get to spend the day with a fictional character. Who?
Lady Jane from Castle Waiting. *long pause* Yes, yes I know you haven't heard of it. It's a graphic novel that spoofs traditional fairy tale tropes. Read it. It's in my room. I'll lend it to you.

18. What turns you on in the opposite gender?
I have absolutely no idea, as I have never dated nor had any inclination to. However, on the slim chance I decide to, I would probably look for someone who is intelligent, shares at least some of my interest and does not deride the ones they do not, a sense of humor, and senses of spontaneity and responsibility and knowing when you've had too much of either.

19. What would you like to achieve within the next 3 years?
Graduate, get a good job, get a driver's license, get a passport, use said passport to go somewhere.

20. What should you be doing right now?
My shotgun response on ella about how stupid Robinson Crusoe was as a character.

21. Pop? Jazz? Classic? Swing? Others?
Whatever. If I like the song, I like it. If I don't, I don't. The only genres I seem to not like wholesale are hip-hop, rap, and some jazz and R&B.

And now, I tag: fire_my_spirit, asta_orra, rhaella, aethelindi, lomeriel, stvincent, kallie_starmist, and pineapple_soul

So yesterday was a bit heinous. But it was the fun kind of heinous, which makes it okay.

Org Fair was yesterday evening, and Org Fair is ALWAYS CRAZY. On the bright side, our tablemates didn't show up--who the heck is the Bangla Club, anyway?--so we could spread out a bit and therefore have more people than is really necessary hovering in the background. Logically, the amount of people we had would scare people away. This is not so.

WE GOT AROUND SEVENTY SIGNATURES.

SEVENTY.

AND WE WERE EVEN SINGING SONGS LOUDLY AND SLIGHTLY-OFF KEY. LIKE 'STILL AlIVE' and 'SAKURA KISS.'

Even if only half show up for the informational meeting, and only half show up for the first anime night, that's still thirty-five some-odd people. That's a lot. We're already packed at the seams as it is, and I don't think the gradual trickling out of people is going to fix that. On the plus side, Bellatrix is not going anywhere anytime soon. However, if this trend keeps up, eventually the club's going to do something drastic like take over campus. Which would be amusing because then all the librarians would get to practice their military tactics AND IT WOULD END BADLY. Hilariously, but badly.

Also, four of us went to the Route 9 Diner last night, where everything was funny and we wrote the Epic and Tragic Saga of Jenny. It was also where I consumed two chocolate shakes and a Mt. Holyoke sandwich (for all of you who are giving me the crazy eye, it's a chicken cutlet sandwich with a whole mess of unhealthy things on it, but it's delicious.) Therefore, I was sleepy-and-yet-not-sleepy when got back and so lay on my bed playing Spore until 4:15 in the morning.

Bad me.

And tonight...tonight will be special.

Do you know what is a stupid thing? Timed motion-sensor lights in the bathrooms that go OUT if they don't sense movement after a while. Good in theory, but when the single shower is off in this enclosed alcove thing, it doesn't pick up on the motion, and turns OFF WHILE YOU ARE STILL IN THE SHOWER. This is especially troublesome if your hair takes a long time to wash, like mine.

Plus, I have allergies and a migraine. But yes, I am happy to be back.

Seeing as I have now seen enough fifteenth to nineteenth century paintings to drive the curator of the National Gallery insane, and have eyestrain from doing my best to interpret waht I have affectionately dubbed 'Lee-scrawl,' I went looking for the type of art that doesn't give me headaches because I'm too close to the screen to determine whether or not that white swirl is a waterlily or a puddle. And the I remembered Michael Whelan. Wonderful, wonderful Michael Whelan.

If you've been reading science fiction for anywhere in the past thirty years, chances are, even if you haven't read one of the books he's designed the cover for, you've heard of at least one. The Otherland books and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams? Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels? Books by Alan Dean Foster, C. J. Cherryh, Michael Moorcock, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and even a couple by Stephen King. He won the World Fantasy Awards three times in a row for Best Artist--in '81, '82, and '83. And the rules say you can only win it three times.

I additions to this, Whelan has art in professional galleries. These tend to be his newer works, but they're jsut as spectacular.

But don't take my word for it: check him out yourself!

http://www.michaelwhelan.com/catalog/permcoll.php

I'm sleepy, and this has been my lullaby for the past couple of weeks, so here you go. I may have to pick a different one to fall asleep to soon. The characters I've been working with are beginning to express their personal opinions. Not all of them are being nice or subtle about it.

Also, the latest lolcat is quite relevant to my current state of mind. OUT

LET IT GO
Rob Thomas

Let it go,
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in,
Let your clarity define you
In the end
We will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain

Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And i don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain

All of my regret
Will wash away some how
But I can not forget
The way I feel right now

In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away but these small hours
These small hours, still remain,
Still remain
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders still remain

For those of you..or the one that I can think of...who might be wondering as to what became of me after I wandered off into the face of an impending thunderstorm looking for Chinese food, I'm fine. Wet, but fine.

I have a very healthy respect for Mother Nature. I like to think that we have an agreement. I don't do stupid things, like wave umbrellas around when I'm walking all the way from Main Moon to Dickinson when I can see the lightning. In return, she doesn't hit me. She just nudges me along. (Which is why I'm wet. I had an umbrella, but preferred not to attract the wrong kind of attention.)

But now I'm back in my room with my dinner, a surge protector on the computer, and a blanket. Life is nice.

Anyone want my rice?

Every time I think my cynicism is clearing up, something happens. Like today, when I went to get some milk from the kitchenette. I needed to wash my cup out first, but there were two people just standing there, eating their dinner amongst all the dirty dishes they'd used to make their food. Chicken cutlets and broccoli. And as they left, one of the girls asked me if I could take care of their dishes too, since I was already washing my cup. My one measly little cup, as compared to a bunch of pots and pans. Fortunately, she walked out before getting an answer.

Needless to say, and I haven't checked on them, but the dishes were left unwashed.

In happier and odder news, I am going to do some drawing. Because I have a readheaded character of my own creation running around up there yelling things like: "You've been talking about me all week and you haven't dran me once! You used too draw me all the time! You drew Tess instead!" Oy....don't ask. Just head shots.

Been reading House of Many Ways. Not as good as the other two, in my opinion, but still a gem. However, I haven't gotten to the parts with Sophie and Howl and Calcifer yet, so we shall see.


Hee-hee. I has a SVU quote. Munch is win.

Arghhgrhhsfraggim heat. I'm taking two showers a day, keeping the fan on, the lights off, and the shades closed in an effort to try and stay remotely cool. It is not working. And every time my computer makes the little thunderstormy noise it makes when there's a severe weather advisory, (which this heat qualifies for) I am reminded of how good standing in rain would feel right now.

I had a nice talk with my parents this evening. Apparently it's just as hot there, which makes me feel better, but not nearly as humid. And their heat is supposed to break tonight. Phooh. But my mom sent me a nice package that arrived today--and of which my dad had no knowledge of--that was a funny conversation. Three books--a cookbook, a tips and ticks tyoe book for living on your own (OhgodOhgodOhgoddon'tremindme), and House of Many Ways, which is the third book in Dianna Wynne JonesHowl's Moving Castle series, after itself and Castle in the Air both of which I own and adore. It came out this month, and she knew I wanted to read it, but the price of hardcovers keeps rising, so I was resigned to waiting for it to be printed in paperback. I am very happy. We also got into the subject of me not having any real summer clothes. Especially pants. I have two pairs of mid-calf length cargoes, and then just jeans. So my mom sent me links from Land's End to all sorts of nice summery clothing--shorts, sleeveless tanktops, even a skort. I haven't worn a skort in over a decade, but I'm really considering it. It looks really nice. And I'm sick of boiling in my jeans.

I discovered today that there will be a third Mummy movie released on August 1st. Now, I love and own the first two, and I was initially all conflicted about it, until someone reminded me that taking these movies too seriously is like taking Indiana Jones too seriously. It's just there for the adventury stuff. You don't need the plot. The plot is just buffer between the interesting bits. I am going to miss Rachel Weisz as Evy, though. She was great. And Jet Li's going to be a bad guy. This movie is either going to crack me or intrigue me. (The Scorpion King did both.)

Must remember to bake cookies for Tamra for being so nice to drive us to the Big Y. Not being able to drive is so bothersome.

http://www.onemanga.com/Claymore/80/30-31/


I will not say any more. If you haven't read the manga, it's a spoiler. But it's such an awesome awesome spoiler. My weekend has been made.

I have spent the past two day reading and, to be perfectly honest, falling in love with a fairly new manga called Fairy Tail, a manga about mages, mage guilds, shonen spirit, insert-your-own-uplfting-adjective-here. The art style is a curious mishmosh of One Piece, Bleach, and another work by this manga-ka called Rave-master There is also a character in it who looks exactly like Ichigo with sunglasses, and I came dangerously close to fangirling him, despite his lack of exposure, and almost guaranteed lack of exposure further down the line. Another main male character has rose-colored hair. And then there's Erza, the girl who uses bloody awesome sword magic.

Besides my new obsession, I'm going to try to finally finish some of those things I'd meant to read. One Piece, Tsubasa, and so on. I've got plenty of time. Also going to try to get some new LJ icons. Don't know of what yet, but the only one I know I want to keep is little smirking Loki up there. Have to make a new DA icon too; possibly a new id. Maybe I'll play around with pixel art some more this summer.

I think tomorrow, if they'll just be two of us in the slide room, I'm going to go back and lurk in the closet in the dark with the Mac. If not, I'll go lurk in the lab. Either way, tomorrow is a lurking day. As long as I have a place to catalogue the paintings for Professor Lee. And as long as I suffer from no more 'Devosgne syndrome.'

I'mma gonna go watch Law and Order now. Because television crime dramas are my secret guilty pleasure.

What?

There is a distinct problem with spending most of your time in an environment where you can walk to see your friends, walk to get food, walk to a movie theatre and the bus stop takes you to other easy and fun places.

...And then you get home, and you remember that all your friends live in different states, or, if they do live in the same one, are three hours away, the movies and anything else remotely interesting is half an hour away in a pretty much diametric direction, and you can't drive. (Not that you'd have a car to use anyway).

After two years at freakin' Storyland, imagine what it feels like to actually want to go back to work. (I am seriously never going to get over that. I can still say the swan boat speech by heart. And probably the safari as well. It's been over a year).

So I am looking forward to going back to work. A place where there is involvement and Things To Do. Also, Prince Caspian is starting at Tower Theaters tomorrow, and after I see that, I will have seen all three movies that I currently want to see that are out. (And I will have a clue as to what Aja's talking about).

I answered one of these, so the rules say I must post them. Basically, if anyone replies in a comment, I answer all the questions about you, and then YOU post this in your journal; rinse; repeat. I tend to kill these things, though. No one ever seems to answer mine.


a) tell you why I friended you,
b) associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.,
c) tell you something I like about you,
d) tell you a memory I have of you,
e) ask something I've always wanted to know about you,
f) tell you my favorite user pic of yours,
g) in return, you must post this in your LJ.

For all that I miss home terribly over the time I'm at school, I always forget how exceedingly boring it is here. (Which I suppose is a good thing--otherwise I wouldn't get those happy couple days or so where everything's nice and peachy). But now I look outside, and it's pine bracken, pine tree, deciduous tree, bush, other bush, neighbor's yard, neighbor's pile of snow that hasn't melted yet, ancient unused railroad tracks, dust, dirt, and BOREDOM. It would be nicer if the nearest place with reasonably entertaining places was less than a half-hour away, and I could drive, but neither of those are true. It would also help if I had friends who lived closer than Maine.

On a happier note, I can watch Law and Order online on my Netflix account. This pleases me.

So...I just got an e-mail telling me I have a package. And all I could think of was: "why would anyone be sendng me anything? I didn't order any...oh."

That's right. I turn twenty two weeks from tomorrow.

...........

You'd think I'd remember because of the two friends whose birthdays are within two weeks of mine. And the fact that my parents are coming to visit. On my birthday.


On a side note, I don't think my mood icons are very...accurate.


.....I wonder what I got?

A few minutes ago, my stomach decided to spontaneously decide that it was hungry. This is most unplesant, as I am not eating dinner until six. You fail, stomach.

Besides, after being more than normally artsy this week, I just want to curl up with my new Mokona plushie and watch endless hours of anime.

After work, after handing in my major form, and after Renegades.