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Saturday, March 18th, 2006
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5:32 pm - I'm NOT a bad person
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So I really like this kid's show that's on on Saturday mornings, Flight 29 Down. It's sort of like Lost Lite -- basically there are 6 or 7 kids stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes, and they have to find a way to survive and be rescued -- but there's no weird flashbacky stuff, and the plot progresses relatively quickly. And the other thing is that there is this really cute guy on the show as the bad-boy-turned-good-strong-leader-person. Now, I was watching it this morning and thinking, "Shit, I am a total pervert for having a major crush on this 16-year-old." HOWEVER, I just looked it up on imdb, and it turns out that he's actually older than me. Yay! I can have my dorky little crush in peace :)
current mood:  chipper
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| Wednesday, March 15th, 2006
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9:32 am - I got into grad school!
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I got into grad school! I can now choose between Queen's University (a Canadian university which almost no one has heard of), University of Chicago, or Harvard for master's programs. I'm still waiting to hear from other places, but that's definately a good start. Woo! Shit, now I have to go ask MORE people to fill out questionnaires for my thesis... I'm starting to hate this... probably just because I'm traumatized from getting stuck talking to the 7th-day Adventist pastor for hours and learning all about how I will not be saved in the end...
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| Sunday, February 5th, 2006
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11:47 pm - hysterics
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Wow... I just had the weirdest experience at the computer lab. I haven't been hysterical in a really long time, but I was so tired that my friend told a joke and I seriously could not stop laughing for like 5 minutes. And it wasn't even that great of a joke! He was just teasing me for using my "folk knowledge" of statistics to answer a question rather than actually being able to pinpoint where I had gotten the information from. Apparently it was hilarious... Wow...
current mood:  indescribable
current music: blessed quiet
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| Tuesday, January 31st, 2006
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9:18 am - Weird
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So yesterday I got an email from the University of Toronto saying that I hadn't sent in my supplemental materials and that I had to email them as an attachment right away because time was running out. Of course, because I don't actually have decent internet at my apartment right now, I had to wait until this morning when I brought my computer to the library. But then, this morning I got an email again from the coordinating lady saying, "Never mind... Actually some professor pinched them to read, and they've been returned to me." What does that mean? These professors don't have enough to read, so they steal random peoples' files who are applying to the school? Or does someone remember me from the summer and want to read what I have to say? Bizarre either way... And kind of scary because they weren't that good...
current mood:  confused
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| Saturday, December 24th, 2005
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4:25 pm - Around the halfway point
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Greetings from Japan! I'm having a great time, and considering I'm about at the halfway point, I thought I'd update. The first significant chunk of time I spent in Kyoto, the ancient capital. There are so many awesome temples and shrines -- I was totally blown away (and exhausted!). It was especially fun to see these historical treasures right in the middle of a huge city. It was a very weird contrast! We also went to Nara, which is a short train ride away from Kyoto and saw their temples there (2 of them, at least: the biggest and the oldest wooden buildings in the world). We also saw a junior high and high school Sumo competition in the middle of the park in Nara, and those poor boys were doing the daiper thing in the freezing cold -- seriously, if it was raining, it would have been snow.
Right now I'm in Beppu, a little city in the south, where Eriko's family is from. Setsko and Tomoko, who I've been staying with, are absolutely wonderful and amazing. I've done lots of onsen (hot spring baths), have seen Monkey Mountain (just as awesome as it sounds), and have generally taken it pretty easy. Tomorrow (Christmas Day for me), I'll spend ALL day on trains, getting back to Tokyo (seriously, from 8:30 in the morning until about 6 at night!). Woohoo! Beppu has been fun, but I've just about run out of things to do here, so I'm excited to get back to Tokyo. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Chanuka, etc. Gotta go, we're having Christmas dinner with people from the rehabilitation center (for people who've been partially paralyzed) where Setsko works.
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| Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
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9:14 am - Japan!
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Well, I made it through the term and am now in beautiful, sunny, cold Japan with Eriko and her mom. It's so cool! We got in last night and were totally exhausted, so I haven't really seen anything yet, but I'm already having a great time. We're going to go take the train somewhere (I'm basically just along for the ride at this point-- I just do what Eriko says :) and get lunch soon. Then, tomorrow we're going to Kyoto, and will be there for 5 days, and after that I'm going on to Beppu where I'm staying with her family friend and getting to see all sorts of cool thermal things (they have all sorts of hot baths, etc because of all the thermal activity there), like "Boiling Hells" which are pools of mineral-colored water, and I get to see "Monkey Mountain." Plus, they have snow there right now, so I'll probably get to see the monkeys in the snow! So cool! Anyway, if you want a postcard, send me your address, and I'll send one off.
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| Monday, December 5th, 2005
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11:19 pm - ugh
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I am so not going to get into grad school! And can I just ask why everyone I talk to at these schools is so negative? For the love of Nancy! I emailed a couple of schools yesterday asking about how I can mark on the app. that I want to apply to both an MA and a PhD program b/c I know that the PhD doesn't accept many people right out of undergrad, and they were all like, "Yes, we admit VERY (or very, very) few." I'm like, how is that helpful? You're just making me feel insecure! I don't think my personal statement is strong enough to get me into a PhD program, but I don't have a more specific focus, and that's what they want. I don't want to lie and say I have a very specific thing in mind, because if I do, then I'll just feel insecure when I get there, and like I got in in an undeserving way. Aaaaaaaaaah! I guess I'll just have to suck it up and pay dearly for my MA degree before going on to the PhD. If I get into any MA programs... I need this process to be over RIGHT NOW! On the bright side, in exactly one week I'll be done with my German final, my research paper (both of which I should be madly working on but am instead procrastinating on), and six grad school applications (with 4 to do when I get back) and will be on a plane to Japan. Woo! Japan, baby!
Oh, this is great -- and fun and happy and not mopey and melodramatic like the rest of this entry... I asked Eriko what I should take as presents for her family, and guess what Setsko wants? A turkey baster and a measuring cup! She told me this on the phone when I was sitting in Starbucks, and I started laughing so hard, I got weird stares from everyone around me... good times :)
current mood:  moody
current music: Rent -- so gorgeously melodramatic!
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| Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
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4:29 am - SCARY FIRE!!!!!!!!!
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Oh my GOD! I just witnessed the scariest thing ever! I woke up at 4 am to someone screaming "FIRE!!!! FIRE!!! GET THE HELL OUT!!!" Over and over again and people screaming. The building right behind mine, on Alder Alley, had caught fire, and I could see it perfectly out my window. Let me just say: fire scares the shit out of me! When I finally woke up, the fire was fairly big, but like a minute later it looked like that whole apartment (it's only 2 stories, but that fire was still pretty big!) was going to come down. And there were people screaming for everyone to get out, and people breaking windows, etc. I think everyone got out ok, because the firemen went in and I didn't hear or see anyone but them coming out of it.
That was seriously the scariest thing ever -- I'm all shivery and chilled, and my stomach hurts from all the stress and worry. I felt so helpless -- like I should do something, but I'd only be in the way. I called 911, but of course they already had a billion calls about it, and the poor woman sounded like she really wished people would stop calling it in, but I was having flashbacks to my psych class where we learned about the bystander effect of no one doing anything about a situation because they think someone else has. So, instead I just helped in mucking up the 911 phone lines... I suppose it's better than the alternative. Everyone (including me!) check your fire alarms!
current mood:  scared
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| Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005
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7:01 pm - time to crash!
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I made it through the day! Yay! I didn't think it was going to be possible... I can finally relax (for the night, and then it's family and homework time! Woo!)
current mood:  grateful
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| Sunday, November 20th, 2005
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1:43 pm - Harry Potter and Ostriches
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Ok, I loved the 4th movie. I normally find the movies fun diversions -- nothing to get as excited over as the books, surely, so I normally don't have enormously high expectations. I was very happy with this version though. They did cut out HUGE chunks of the book, so if you didn't already know what was going on, my impression is that you'd be totally and utterly lost when it came to some of the more complicated plot points. However, everything moved along quite nicely, and they didn't butcher any of the characters, etc. In fact, I was really pleased with some of the little character touches they had. I just wish there could have been more. Is that greedy of me? I mean, it's just like with the LOTR movies. I would happily sit through 4 more hours if it meant that I got to see everything I love from the books. I can see the difficulties with that, though, so I'm willing to let the movie slide by at 2 and a half hours :) Oh, and a side note: while on the way to the movie, my friend pointed out the fact that I tend to say "whatev" instead of "whatever" now. Is that insanely pathetic like he inferred? Should I attempt to revise my vocabulary?
(I'm hanging out in the lounge of the music school, having comandeered an entire table to spread my crap out on, and I just noticed that amusingly, there's a woman sitting at the table next to me eating basically the same thing I finished eating -- an orange and a mini kettle corn package that you pop up in the microwave. Hee!)
And alas, I have come to realize that I am becoming an ostrich. I feel like I'm digging my head deeper and deeper into the sand. I have so much to do this term, and I know that, and I am working on it, but at the same time, I never get as much done as I say I'm going to in a given day, which means that the work load is piling up like none other. And I'm really scared that my personal statement sucks. I just have a rough draft of it now, but would anyone be willing to look over it and give me suggestions on how to make it better? I'd love you forever (although I probably do already :)!
current mood:  worried
current music: random music school practicing sounds
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| Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005
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11:26 pm - Stupid GREs
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Well, I'm taking the GREs tomorrow. I appologize that I've been griping about it for days (weeks?) to everyone I see, so as of tomorrow you won't have to hear that any more. However, I may gripe about how much I dislike it... we'll see. I'm a tad freaked out, I have to say, but I took today kind of easy, and then instead of studying tonight went to a Celtic music jam session at a nearby coffee shop which was a lot of fun. Oh, and I just found out that my roomie has Newsies on DVD, so I'm TOTALLY treating myself to that when I'm finally done! YES!!!! Why does everyone in my generation love that movie so much? I mean, it was kind of a flop at the time, wasn't it? I think it got bad reviews from critics, too, but for some reason everyone I know who's my age seems to just adore it. My roomie and I just got into a nostalgic, singing-without-really-knowing-all-of-the-words fest for ALL of the songs... good times :) Anyway, off to bed to be nice and refreshed tomorrow!
current mood: intimidated
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| Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
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8:49 pm - Wednesday is my Friday
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So every single Wednesday I totally crash. The first three days of my week are so long and so hard that I always just get home and do nothing all night. Basically, I act like it's Friday night rather than Wednesday. I usually try to convince myself during the day that I'm not going to act like a slug when I get home, but does that ever happen? You don't have to be a brain scientist to figure that one out! And luckily, I don't have anything to do tomorrow but go to work, a meeting, salsa, and quartet practice! I'll still be gone ALL day (like from 8-10), but at least it's not going to be a brain-intensive day. Yay! Ok, off to watch Veronica Mars, the best show on television! Woohoo!
current mood:  lethargic
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| Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
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7:55 pm - vocabulary
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I have no vocabulary. I'm not going to get into grad school because of it! Waaah! Ok, so I'm taking the GREs in a week and a half, and I was doing some prep work today -- going through practice tests and whatnot, and it turns out that my vocabulary is nonexistant. I get like half of the antonym section wrong. That is not acceptable! Grad schools are going to care more about the verbal than the math or analytical sections for me (religious studies), right? Because I totally rock the analytical, and the math isn't so bad. It's just vocabulary that I don't have. What the hell? How did I make it through college without having a vocabulary? Anyone know of a quick way to grow a vocabulary, in a week and a half? Because I'm feeling kind of desperate.
current mood:  frustrated
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12:04 am - Gotta love birthday parties!
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I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did tonight. Good times... It was my friend Lionel's 21st birthday party, and we threw him a surprise party. By far the best part of the evening was when he and Matt rapped along with some rap music (what, you expect me to know artists?) and danced, and then got in 2 (count 'em, 2!) fake fights that went on for about 5 minutes each. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Those two could go on tour. If anybody needs entertainment for a party, they should just hire the two of them to clown around.
current mood:  amused
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| Saturday, October 22nd, 2005
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1:03 am
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So I'm wasting time while running a participant in a psych study. I could be doing homework but... meh, it's Friday. However, this experiment it the sweetest setup ever -- basically I lock the participant in a room for 45 minutes and they do an online survey. No stressing out about doing many different parts of the study, no freaking out about having to lie to people and tell them they're stupid and then feeling guilty about it. YAY! Just 30-45 uninterrupted minutes of peace. Yay.
In other news, I went to the doctor today, and apparently I have adult-onset acne. Is that not the worst thing ever? I never ever had acne problems before until my face exploded this summer. It totally sucks. Anyway, I'm seeing a dermatologist next week. This had better go away soon or I'm going to go mad. MAD, I TELL YOU!!!!!!!!! I am wearing my "Bad Hair Day" shirt, though, which for some inexplicable reason always makes me feel better.
Oh, and reading Andrew's journal makes me realize that I should make class time more musical. I wonder how my professor would react if I broke out into "A Whole New World" or "Bear Necessities" or "Toot Sweets" in the middle of the class I TA for. Maybe I'll just lead singalongs on our bus trip up to Portland. Hmmm... something to ponder :) Ooh, I have the singalong versions of both Beauty and the Beast and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It would be awesome if our bus has a DVD player! Of course, then my students might actually kill me, so that might not be the best option.
KIM: Come down to Eugene this weekend! That's an order! I know Channie invited you, and you should totally come! My roommate is gone this weekend, so it would just be the 4 of us SMA girls in a reunion-type-thing! Oh, and Kishie and I want to go salsa dancing on Saturday, so prepare yourself :)
current mood:  blah
current music: type type type type type type keys type keys....
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| Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
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10:00 am - never mind
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Ok, so I was freaking out about nothing. People were nice, my presentation went well, and I fielded questions without too much freak-outage about my lack of knowledge. Whew! I am practically done with that class now -- all I have to do is show up and critique other peoples' thesis prospectuses (prospecti?).
current mood:  relieved
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7:20 am - Presentation in 40 minutes!
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So I'm giving a presentation in 40 minutes, and I really hope people are nice to me. I'm particularly scared because I realized last night that I really screwed up on some things (I submitted my paper on blackboard for people to print out and edit last week). First of all, I forgot to annotate my biliography. Second of all, and I didn't think this would be much of a problem at the time, but apparently I'm a big idiot as I realized late last night, I didn't include my appendices with the paper that I submitted online. These are just questionnairs that I'll be handing out, and I didn't have some of them in electronic format, and since I summarize what they're about in the text of the paper I didn't think it would be that important to include them, but I'm thinking that I really should have and I may be in totally deep shit in 38 minutes. Crap. Oh well, it's a pass/no pass class, but I really don't want people to think I'm an incompetent idiot.
current mood: scared
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| Monday, October 17th, 2005
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12:29 pm
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So there's this girl in one of my classes and also my honors psychology seminar who I have an intense, irrational hatred for. This makes me feel like a horrible person, and I don't like feeling like that! Literally, though, I have a hard time looking at her and not making a bad face, and she was sitting right across the seminar table from me today in class. The horrible thing is, that they are both small classes so I can't escape from her AND we're in the same small group for our Ecology Colloquium. Seriously, this girl is crazy. I was talking to her and being all nice before I decided to give in to the dark side and joking about competition, and she said (in complete seriousness -- I am not even kidding) that she wins at all costs. She would hurt someone and cheat as much as possible in order to win, which is why she doesn't do sports. Of course, my reaction was something like, "Oh... um... well, at least you're honest..." Aaaargh.
On the bright side, I got a 96% on my quiz for my German for reading knowledge class! Yay!
current mood:  bitchy
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| Sunday, October 16th, 2005
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1:48 pm - 6 months since my last update...
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Ok, so it's been forever since I used livejournal except for spying on my friends :), but I thought I'd give it another go. Just in case any of my nine friends who actually care about me and don't think I'm EVIL are surprised that all of a sudden I'm posting again... Basically I'm procrastinating at the moment. Big presentation on thesis prospectus on Tuesday? Whatev... Last night I watched Firefly while doing dishes and cleaning my room, and then went to Jim's party instead of doing work! Yes! I'm also being a total chicken about contacting the churches I want to use for my thesis (I want to pass out surveys after service). SUCH a wimp -- oh well :) Plus, I just added two other denominations that I want to study, so now I've got 5: Unitarian Universalists, Protestant Fundamentalists, Catholics, Presbyterians, and Eastern Orthodox. While I'm kind of freaked out about the acutal data collecting process, I'm way excited about what I'm going to find, which I think is a good sign since I'm going to be immersed in this for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, though, I have to take Psych 412 next term which is ANOTHER statistics class, which I didn't realize I had to take until last week. Doesn't that suck? I hate statistics classes... when I'm actually USING statistics for something important they're ok.
My roommate bought religious bread today, which I think is the funniest thing ever. The packaging says "Ezekiel 4.9 Sprouted Grain Bread is inspired by the Holy Scripture Verse: 'Take also unto thee Wheat, and Barley and Beans, and Lentils, and Millet, and Spelt, and put them in one vessel and make bread of it...'" And guess what the ingredients are?!? My Sarah Lee bread isn't quite as interesting, unfortunately. I need to pay more attention to labels when I go shopping. Do you think I could find religious cheese? Crackers? Apples? I KNOW I should be able to find religious wine... I wonder if religious people think that eating religious bread makes them better people... If I were in marketing, I could TOTALLY exploit that (see? Evil!).
current mood:  dorky
current music: loud neighbors
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| Wednesday, May 25th, 2005
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4:26 pm - Proud to be a Geek!
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I love geeks. Can I just say that? I mean, they tend to be the friendliest, most organized people out there! Seriously! I mean, has a geek ever been responsible for violence of any sort? (Probably, but to a much lesser extent than other classes of people I can think of) I didn't have a ride to Portland for the Serenity screening (and if you don't know what that is, you are a lesser geek than I), so I randomly found this yahoo group called the Eugene Browncoats (people from Eugene who are obsessed with Firefly), so I posted a message asking if anyone was driving up and was willing to give me a ride, and within 3 hours I had a ride. I kid you not! I am having a geek pride moment :) And on top of everything else, it's SO SUNNY OUTSIDE!!! Yay!
current mood:  geeky
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