I AM DONE WITH COLLEGE, HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH.

I just sent in my final paper (late, oops, I don't really care anymore), and now I get to party!

Lindsey helped me get through the last bits of my paper, and gave me this sage piece of advice:

"Write or Die is a bullshit facilitator - a bullshit laxative, if you will."

AHAHAHA Lindsey. I heart you. Go see Star Trek with me tomorrow.

*goes to sleep*

I have been hiding from real life by reading massive quantities of Magnificent Seven fic. Some of it was deeply, deeply bad, but I cannot stop myself.

However, I have a compelling list of reasons for hiding.
1) On Wednesday, a student at my school was shot and killed at her job in the campus bookstore. The shooter was at large until late last night, and the campus was on lockdown because they thought he might go after more Wesleyan students. I didn't know her, and I really don't know how I feel right now - it's still so surreal. I've barely left the house for a week.

2) I have three papers left to write. One is days late, and the other two are due on Monday. I have not written a single page. I am soooo fucked, and I'm having trouble caring.

3) I am graduating from college. My only current solid plan is going to the Bahamas for two weeks in June.


Some things that have made me smile recently:
1) Ryan Ross playing with animal horns (not like that!) and Brendon Urie quoting 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
2) Maine legalizing same-sex marriage. If New Hampshire joins, we'll have New England almost covered. Let's hope it spreads, like a zombie plague of awesome.
3) The shenanigans over at XKCD. I am frequently irked at how media and fiction portray fans as crazy in a bad way; Randall Munroe is one of us, and pokes fun at Firefly/general fandom in a way that neatly avoids any irkage on my part. Plus, there's a perfect dig at FOX, which I ALWAYS love.
4) Picturing the ATF-verse Mag7 meeting the Leverage gang. I mean, aside from imagining Ezra and Sophie's delightful verbal duels when they meet undercover, or how badly Parker would scare Buck, I like to picture Vin and Eliot in the same room, and all the separated-at-birth jokes that might follow.

The opening drum bits of "Geronimo" by Phantom Planet and "Invincible" by OKGo are very similar, and I was very confused by my iPod earlier when they played back to back. I just thought ya'll should know that.

I have a 12 page research paper due Monday, and it's not going well. It's still at that place where I know a lot of random bits of information and what I want to argue, but I still have to go through microfilm to find reviews and box office stats. I HATE microfilm in all its unwieldy non-glory. Books have similar access issues, but at least they are charming and fully indexed and smell nice.

Ahhh, why do I never work on things ahead of time? At least I'm interested in the material. It's not everyday you get to compare Roger Corman to John Cassavetes.

1) I have watched eight movies this week (one of which I've seen before), plus about 3 hours of short films from 1895-1906ish. I feel like my eyes are going to turn into movie reels if this keeps up. Once my Silent Cinema class hits feature films, I will be watching a MINIMUM of 7 movies a week. Yeaargh.

2) I found an old meme from my old computer (I've been going through my files and ruthlessly organizing them. I'm starting to feel a little OCD.), and wanted to post it. I'm particularly amused by the last item, which was clearly written before winter break:
( Fandom Fling meme, gender-neutralized for your viewing pleasure )

3) My brain keeps composing parts of a Criminal Minds 5 things fic while I'm not paying attention. The thing is, there must be plenty of fics out there that posit alternate fates for the BAU team, right? It's an on-going subtext on the show that our profilers are only separated from the unsubs by a thin line of circumstance and choice, yet I haven't *seen* any around. Have any of ya'll spotted them? Am I just looking in the wrong places?

When I saw Transformers on Friday, I think one of the things that made me happiest was when the secret section government agent was played by Ron Butterfield from West Wing.

Soon, I will post pictures of drunken "Pin the Kiss on Michael Bay" from my roommate's birthday party. It's covered in lipstick and snarky Sharpie sketches and awesomeness.

Why am I up so late when I have to summarize the influence of melodrama on the action genre for study group tomorrow? Other than swing dancing and playing Apples to Apples for two hours....

Oh, dear. I made the mistake of reading the first few pages of Luck in the Shadows on Amazon, and ended up ordering the whole Nightrunner trilogy by Lynn Flewelling. Considering the number of recommendations I've had for it and my own appreciation of the opening, I suspect that I'm safe, but I wish I hadn't already ordered Empire of Ivory - it would have saved extra trips to the mail. As it was, I was forced to add Martha Wells' Entanglement to get free shipping: such a sad fate is mine.

Now the question is: when the hell am I gonna find the time to read them? Last weekend was literally the first time since school started that I haven't had to a) shoot a film or b) drive to New Haven to buy apartment crap at IKEA (also an excuse to visit my roommate's adorable brother at Yale, with whom I always end up arguing the merits of film vs theatre).

I'm having a fantastic semester: three film classes and West African dance. Heaven! So I've watched over 20 movies since school started, and that's not including all the one-reel silent films from my Action and Adventure class. Higgins does love his silents, but he provides hilarious commentary, so we love them, too.

A lot of them are for my Race and Film class, though, and therefore heavy on the offensive/bad end of the spectrum. I watched Birth of a Nation on fast-forward (the benefit of it being silent and me being fast at reading intertitles).

Additional trivia:
--Isabella Rossellini donated money and some of her mother's collection to our film center, a fact learned while snacking outside the editing room.
--My production prof used to teach at UT/work in Austin, so we bonded over missing Tex-Mex the first day of class. Also, he make ninja filmmaker jokes.
--I have three radically different types of dance this semester: West African, rapper sword dancing, and swing.
--I haven't watched a single TV premiere or pilot :(
--All my classes are within 100 feet of each other.
--Rudy Valentino was a damn attractive man, but don't watch The Sheik. Skip straight to the sequel, Son of the Sheik, in which Rudy has some great scenes with himself.

Meme from apocalypsos and taraljc:

Name a character and I'll tell you three (or more) facts about them from my own personal pseudo-canon.

Indulge me. I just spent 10 hours straight editing my documentary, fueled only by peanut butter crackers and a thunderstorm. I can't tell if I have a crush on Final Cut Pro or Stockholm Syndrome. The doc turned out well, but I'm too tense-tired to fall asleep. I remember the last time I was this tired: I started making fun of myself for not going to bed, only to stop halfway through and go, "Wait, what?"

This weekend has been one of extended outings. I want to sleep, but of course I am plagued by homework.

( Lo, the saga of Katie's weekend )

****

On the (slightly) more entertaining side, I had a whacky dream last night. Initially, I was a character in a group that got sucked into a parallel universe, except we were from a sort of steampunk universe. The new universe was more traditionally medieval, so we found a castle where some sort of murders had taken place, and it was haunted and the lighting was very Supernatural-esque. I kept getting chased around and there were military factions and whatnot. The story strayed from realism at that point, and the culprit looked like the Nightmare Before Christmas guy (Jack Skellington?) and there was some sort of bomb about to go off? Yeah.

The dream shifted at that point: the first section was a new book by marthawells, and I was in a seminar led by researchgrrrl, which was located in my Austin bedroom for some obscure reason (any ideas, Kim? *waggles eyebrows*). I was sitting where the closet is - WTF? I can't remember what we discussed, but Kim had two large books in front of her: one on alchemy and one on explosives *g*. I do remember thinking that we both knew Martha (and were Texans?) and that should be included in the discussion, but we were both being discreet, or something.

My brain is weird, ya'll.

****

In other news, my history professor is adorable and I have a brain-crush. His teaching style and philosophy is reminiscent of my favorite high school teacher, and he's like a cross between David Tennant's Doctor and Marc on Ugly Betty - catty/dorky/hilarious with eyebrows that jump around like grasshoppers.

Dude. This bat has a tongue that is so long that it retracts into the bat's rib cage.

If that's not newsworthy, I don't know what is. *geeks out* And for extra win, the article includes a comparison picture with Gene Simmons. Hee!

ETA: more links and randomicity! ( Brought to you by: 4 AM - totally the right time for this )

Today, I ate an entire 24 ounce jar of applesauce (in two sittings) and did not start my film paper at all. Do you think the first balances out the second?

Also, the guy I work with at the computer helpdesk was watching Justice League on his computer, which I figured out by recognizing Green Lantern's voice. From across the room. (J'onn, meanwhile, sounds like a hybrid of James Earl Jones and Michael Dorn from afar) I even figured out it was Metamorphosis from Season 1. *headdesk* Why does my brain store useless information like this?

First of all: I turn 19 today! Happy birthday, inmyriadbits! Soon, I shall be in NY, and the city will tremble in fear....

Reason #2023 I Love My Westerns Film Course: While writing an essay on High Noon, I get to write, "The conflict set up at the beginning, however, requires Kane to chose to fight evil in the form of Frank Miller...."
Which is waaaay funnier if you are familiar with DC Comics and who these men are in relation to Batman, but if you don't know, I'm not revealing the depths of my nerdiness.

In music news, (I know, Lindsey, I have music news! *gasp*) I won a free CD through the power of Google. This group called The 35th Parallel came to Wes for a concert, and I signed up for their mailing list. They held a competition to see who could figure out the source of their new CD title, Crossing Painted Islands. It has to do with road markings, actually, but I got a free CD and I like their music, so: sweet! (Happy birthday to me ;) )

Also, I went to a Tuvan throat singing concert. Very cool.

So, I'm watching Veronica Mars episodes that I missed and ( guess what I noticed? )

First of all, a casting spoiler for SG-1's next season. Lindsey, say it with me: WHEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, a very accurate essay on laptop usage during college lectures from Slate. The author points out a lot of off-topic uses for internet surfing, but in Film class it can be quite useful. IMDB, baby! We're all fans in that class.

Meanwhile, in homework land, I have to read 21 versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Currently, my brain is burning from the horrible rhymes perpetrated by several authors. Why? Why must I suffer this fate? There's a reason I stay away from the Pit of Voles. *sigh* Maybe it will be better once I get past the Romantic writers....

At least I have Doctor Who on the horizon, once I read some more of this crap. 'Tis a lovely carrot to tempt myself with.

Well, today sucked.

When the best part of your day happens in Economics clas (yay 110 on the test!), and the second best part involves staying after school for 3 hours (playing with the centrifuge, cactus, and a blender), you realize that you should have stayed in bed. Especially since Texas decided to jump from 85 degree weather to 45 degree weather in 3 days, without including my favorite weather at all. *sulks*

I'm not touching the other Issue.

Gacked from jackleen.

I want everyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want. Then I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.


Meh. Want to sleep. Realized I need to finish my English book by tomorrow, as there will inevitably be a quiz. Fortunately, I like the book. Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko. She has a love for storytelling, in the old sense, which I find entrancing.

By the way, thanks for all the book recs the other day, ya'll! I decided to go with American Gods, simply because I want to do a comparative study of Gaiman's works, and reference Good Omens. I was explaining my ideas for the paper with my teacher, and he started laughing at my explanation of the Antichrist, so hopefully I can hook him on it and fear no more for my grade ;)

Okay, guys, I need book recommendations. We get to choose a book to write our final English paper about, and I need suggestions for something that I can create an original thesis for (emphasis on creativity). I'm tempted to choose a scifi/fantasy book just because they are so often overlooked critically, and I can prove my teacher's doubts wrong.

I mainly want a character that I can attach myself to for the course of the book. As long as the people intrigue me, I can get through anything. My teacher basically told us anything goes, as long as he clears it.

( Help? )

We were studying heart anatomy in Physiology today, so of course we got sidetracked into a debate on the proper connotations of 'geek' and 'nerd.'

Dictionary.com says:
geek
A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken. Yikes! I did not know that...

"Nerd" is the same, sans chicken-mauling.

Geeks are the ones who scurry through the hallways with graphing calculators, heads down, backpacks bulging. They are often adorable, like pug dog puppies, but mildly depressing. Their native language is technobabble.

We agreed, after lengthy debate, that we were nerds. Nerds are geek-like, but possess social skills at a level which allows them to actually communicate with society.

It was a very engrossing conversation. Really!

If this article on Stargate: Atlantis is accurate, then I am irritated. The way they are describing the characters looks like they smushed SG-1 into a ball and divided it randomly into new characters. Ugh.

*****

Justice League is horribly, wonderfully addictive. At least Lindsey has once again bowed to my superior TV taste and is getting addicted with me ;) I think the only show we currently watch that she heard about/wanted to watch first was Alias; the rest are mineminemine! Bwahahahaaaa!!!!

Er, maybe I'm taking this sibling rivalry thing too far...

*****

I got my PSAT scores back, and I did so much better than I had hoped. Bright part of a sucky, over-worked week. BTW, much thanks to jrose for helping me with my writing project. *smooches*

Okay, must sleep. Recovery from all-nighter is needed.

You know you've been studying calculus too long when you start to ship trig functions. And their derivatives.

tan/sec! w00t!

Also, Lindsey's new room (Em's old room) is being retextured for painting. The smell's not too bad, but it's triggering a scent-memory that I can't pin down, and *that* is driving me nuts. *sigh*