it's the new blue, you know

hazardblue @ 2008-07-15T20:13:00

2008-07-16T03:13:15Z

Ever get tired of existing?

Yay! Drugged! Boo! Worked.

2007-03-03T07:00:36Z

I'm writing an entry instead of writing my overdue paper, which is always such a good idea.

And why *aren't* people constantly medicated? It makes life so much *better.* I just couldn't get into a daily regiment of self-medicating, which makes it a moot point, but really. Drugs = awesome. I'm a complete lightweight, cheap date when it comes to caffeine, and I really enjoy the perks of only needing a small cup of good coffee to stay awake and focused all night. I really wish I could bring myself to have even a cup of coffee everyday, but then I'd develop a resistance to caffeine and that would be *terrible.* After advancing to entire jugs of large carafes of liquid java, I'd then be forced to forage for methamphetamines and bankrupt myself getting Adderall illegally on a highly competetive campus, and then where would I be? (Skinny and poor, really. Key word being poor. Or is that skinny?) I wonder if there are people out there who feel peppy and organized and *awake* like I am right now...all the time. I'm so fucking jealous.

It would really be not a good idea to admit to being on anything more illegal than caffeine in this very public livejournal post.

I'm now wondering if it was my incipient mono that was making me so lazy and uncaring and tired about school and life in general, instead of PMS or SAD or really, my innate lazy and apathetic nature. In any case, I'd like for all that to be over soon, thanks. (Because I'm really in my heart-of-hearts peppy! And social! And caring about stuff! I swear!)

Most of this post is dedicated to my love for Hal, my first emoporn crush. However, it's also dedicated to my unending hatred for having to write a paper on him and his emoporn relationship with Falstaff, because I would just like to veg out, plz. Actually, I'd like to write stories. Damn.

hazardblue @ 2006-12-25T22:19:00

2006-12-26T06:19:14Z

My graaaaades.

So depressed.

hazardblue @ 2006-07-27T20:10:00

2006-07-28T03:10:50Z

Have got into a car accident that was my fault.

Am feeling like a really fucking moronic asshat.

That is all.

Yes, I do quantify my worth as a person by the measure of my grades.

2006-05-31T03:11:39Z

Grarrrrgh!

So annoyed at my grades! Read: annoyed at myself for my grades. Well, for one grade, because the other grades (Oceanography and Japanese were pretty much given and well. :shrug: ) But Social Psych!!! Arghhh!!! It was SUCH AN EASY CLASS! Rawrr rawrrr rawrr rawrrrrrr. It was just a cumulative effect from both Oceanography and Japanese that sunk my GPA and I'm really annoyed that I care about GPA but I guess I do.

(NOTE: Future me! Don't let your friends' thinking you're a COMPLETE slacker to make you believe you really ARE one.)

The GPA is not bad. Just.

Mediocre.

(AND I SOUND LIKE SUCH A GRADE SNOB KILL ME NOW.)

Next grade-school year me: please redirect your attention back to this LJ post and REFLECT! Be all GRRRR!!

But you know, I guess in a way I should be proud I got the grades I did based on the amount of work I put into school...?

Gah! :newspaper smack!!: NO!

WORK HARDER NEXT YEAR. Care about grades when you're actually in the classes!!! (Actually, you know...WORK.)

I'm so hopeless... ¬.¬;;

Against the principles of God and Man!!!!

2006-05-17T18:46:08Z

In other news, we've got an investation of hairy, wriggly, black CATERPILLARS that are EVERYWHERE. I mean, this is not your average, "Oh, look there are caterpillars on the ground," but a fucking OH MY GOD MY FACE IS CRAWLING WITH FIFTY CATERPILLARS I JUST BRUSHED UP AGAINST.

These mofos? Otherwise known as tent caterpillars. They form an army line like two inches deep of pure caterpillar up a tree, where they simply destroy the tree. You can tell which trees are infested because its leaves have been stripped bare. Also, there are caterpillars HANGING AT FACE HEIGHT. Yeah, you read right. These suckers LEVITATE.

This is SO totally why I don't believe in God. What the hell happened to God making insects crawl TWICE? :
"the living creatures of every kind that creep." Three verses, and 24 hours later, He makes "all kinds of creeping things of the earth." (from Slate Magazine - Blogging the Bible)

They were REALLY bad two weeks ago, webs and caterpillars and STRINGS of CATERPILLARS, as in a string made up of caterpillars hanging from trees. Not to mention underfoot, squishing, and in dorm rooms, between pages of books, IN YOUR BED OMG. :cry:

The buildings and grounds people cut off the lower branches of trees where the brunt of caterpillars were a week ago, but they didn't get to the top branches, where there were still caterpillars whose silk could still reach face-level and below. Still, there was a vast improvement in the quality of life last week.

Today, 9:00 AM.
Me: Doo dee doo. :does wary caterpillar check, eyes straining for tell-tale little glimmerse in the air signifying enemy presence.:
Me: :goes on my way.:

Today, 10:00
Me: Returning from Japanese oral exam. About to head for front door.
Curtain of caterpillars hanging down from silk thread that moves with the wind: *EXISTS BALEFULLY TO DESTROY YOUR LIFE*

Let me say it again:
These caterpillars? Levitate.

Think about it.

You eye those newly leafed trees warily: Fucking trees with their fucking caterpillars.

Every time you see a nice leaf blow past, you flinch--"OH GOD CATERPILLAR!"

The slightest tickle and you're slapping at yourself wildly, screaming at passersby: PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD: CATERPILLAR CHECK.

Imagine this a campus-wide phenomena.

Like the Handsmaid Tale, it's already happened.

Please look at my school, height of caterpillar infestation. Commiserate.

Handsmaid's Tale

2006-05-17T16:24:34Z

I was outraged, but now I just have this deep, deep sense of foreboding about the direction this country is headed.

From today's Washington Post:

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Washington Post article: Forever Pregnant

Then they proceed to quite nicely dress it up and say that it's because it's for the health of all those unborn babies, and it all sounds almost reasonable while you're in the thick of the reasons. But something grates and then you read Salon's rebuttal article, which sums up the indignation you're still reeling over.

For serious, no Western European country is as crazy as bugfuck America.

bitchbitchbitch

2006-04-10T20:34:39Z

Rawrrrrrrr. Being a girl sucks SO MUCH sometimes. WTF hormones?!!

Am right here, right now, at this moment very cranky at the entire world.

There's a poetry reading by Louise Gluck right now (Poet Laureate) and I was going to go, but got the location mixed up with somewhere else. I mean, by the time I realize (after getting to the wrong place), it's already 4:15 and that would mean going back up to my dorm to look up the location and then go back to the general vicinity--and what the fuck ever. Waste of time being so late. And normally, this wouldn't even faze me, but I am SO. FUCKING. ANNOYED. right now.

This in addition to throwing a tantrum yesterday that my mom repacked shit I wanted to leave at home and her leaving out my sandals. SO IRRATIONAL and I KNOW it but I can't help but feel so ANGERLY.

Seriously. Where are the "placate hormonal women" drugs on the market right now??

typhoid mary hits.

2006-03-09T00:34:03Z

Why? Why??

This happened last semester too: a really annoying cold hit right before finals.

This time, the flu the DAY BEFORE midterms.

I think it a VERY sad state of affairs that I have (almost) no problem skipping class to sleep in, but can't make myself ask for an extension on the in-class midterm when I'm all ache-y.

But anyway, school has been LOTS of fun. (Even with the all-time low test score of 63 on my first Oceanography exam. Ha! Above 60--the magic number!) I have done a 180 with my japanese class, and there is much love for it. <33 That move from the 9:00 time slot to the 10:00 one made a world of difference. My sensees are amazed.

Though :choke: I scheduled my plane on the day of the midterm oral exam PLUS I missed today's evaluated individual meeting because I collapsed (well, more like gingerly crept into) bed after morning classes and didn't wake up until 5. I am feeling grateful to escape from Yamamoto-sensee, Kagaya-sensee, Hosaka-sensee AND TA O'Donnell-san's disapproving eye(s) for spring break. There are a lot of profs for a class of 8.... (Then the class is further split into half on Mon-Wed-Fri so there are only 4 students then.)

We'll see how it turns out.

Meme: Johari

2006-03-02T04:09:11Z

I saw this go around, and I thought I'd try it out.

Johari - personality
Nohari - flaws

Anonymous is fine. =)

Quizzesszess.

2006-02-24T00:56:28Z

I am picky...

The Priss
Deliberate Brutal Love Dreamer (DBLDf)

Mature. Responsible. Aristocratic. Excuse me. The Priss.

Prisses are the smartest of all female types. You're highly perceptive, and confident in your judgements. You'd take brutal honesty over superficiality any time--your friends always know where they stand with you. You're completely unfake. Don't tell me that's not a word. You're also excellent at redirecting internal negative energy.

These facts indicate people are often intimidated by you. They also fall for you, hard. You have a distant, composed allure that many find irresistible. If only more of them lived up to your standards.

Your exact opposite:
The Playstation

Random Gentle Sex Master

You were probably the last among your friends to have sex. And the first to pretend that you're pregnant. LOL. Though you're inclined to use sex as weapon, at least it's not as one of mass destruction. You're choosier than most about your partners. A supportive relationship is what you're really after. Whether you know it or not, you need something steady & long-term. And soothing.

ALWAYS AVOID: The Playboy, The Loverboy

CONSIDER: The Manchild

Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.
My profile name: cinderfalling

Winter break, what winter break?

2006-01-06T05:22:18Z

so school's back in swing, and I just dusted out my wallet for 3-day ski passes, a sushi boat dinner, and massage lessons taught by the local spa place.

Camille's gonna teach me how to snowboard, and just to be on the safe side, I got the 3-day pass instead of the month-long ones. We always have next year. =)

I'm also taking sledding! I wanted to take figure skating, too, but schedule conflicts... So sad.

(Look at me go! Miss Northeast Transplanted from Cali!)

Free University's awesome--those are the random-ass classes taught by mainly students, but the massage class I'm taking is professional. Ehehe. I'm also taking Italian Cooking and Knitting for begginers. Also want to take this Beyond HTML class that teaches CSS, which would kick ass because I've been meaning to learn it for years.

I've been mainly posting to friends' blogs... But no more! Welcome me back, Livejournal, unto yon arms!

In other news, I totally missed my 9 am class today because I accidentally set my alarm for 7:45 PM instead of AM.... D'oh. Oh well, it was only Japanese... The bane of my life. But really! This school is so damn evil and shortsighted: they schedule classes THE DAY AFTER you're scheduled to get here. As in, I had classes at 9 AM after 16 hours of traveling and 40 hours of being "awake."

Also have finished a draft of an original short story--slashy and future-tech! (Would anyone be interested...?) (never mind that it was for class) and have a yen to complete this other story, with these characters, you know, Blood and Ishuca and Blood-clone? That would really be some kind of kickass. Because OMG. It's been so damn long since I've finished anything closely related to fannish. And it hurts my soul.

SNOW SNOW SNOW!!

2005-11-24T17:54:48Z

And yea, our (mysteriously white British) forefathers proclaimed that Thanksgiving would be a bountiful harvest with a cornacopeia of goodwill admidst the the snow falling like fat jujubees and blanketing the earth like Santa's North Pole.

...help. Everyone's home for holidays! I don't know how to deal with snow!

I need to go walking in this weather, cuz I'm housesitting for a professor and his BEAUTIFUL Alaskan Aleutian(?) dog.

And my English professor invited the losers not going home for thanksgiving over to his.... I will probably be going, yes. (Him and all his extended family.... GAH.) And he was like, Spring, I feel like we didn't have enough time to go over your story in class, so do you want to go over it over break as long as you're on campus? And I'm all MEEP. (Because I really don't want to out and say Audrey and Seth have mad gay sex in the story though the professor was the one to point out all the unintented gay bits in class. BWAHAHAHA)

hazardblue @ 2005-11-22T13:30:00

2005-11-22T18:30:20Z

Ok, yeah. I like the Japanese language, but I never wanted to actually visit Japan. This article just heightened my anxieties.

New York Times - Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan

Stuff like: A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."

ánd:

The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.

Really? Bestsellers? No joke? Not an exaggeration?

November 19, 2005
Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan
By NORIMITSU ONISHI

Correction Appended

TOKYO, Nov. 14 - A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."

In another comic book, "Introduction to China," which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: "Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There's nothing attractive."

The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.

In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan's fellow Asians and in the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, the books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan's worsening relations with the rest of Asia.

They also point to Japan's longstanding unease with the rest of Asia and its own sense of identity, which is akin to Britain's apartness from the Continent. Much of Japan's history in the last century and a half has been guided by the goal of becoming more like the West and less like Asia. Today, China and South Korea's rise to challenge Japan's position as Asia's economic, diplomatic and cultural leader is inspiring renewed xenophobia against them here.

Kanji Nishio, a scholar of German literature, is honorary chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, the nationalist organization that has pushed to have references to the country's wartime atrocities eliminated from junior high school textbooks.

Mr. Nishio is blunt about how Japan should deal with its neighbors, saying nothing has changed since 1885, when one of modern Japan's most influential intellectuals, Yukichi Fukuzawa, said Japan should emulate the advanced nations of the West and leave Asia by dissociating itself from its backward neighbors, especially China and Korea.

"I wonder why they haven't grown up at all," Mr. Nishio said. "They don't change. I wonder why China and Korea haven't learned anything."

Mr. Nishio, who wrote a chapter in the comic book about South Korea, said Japan should try to cut itself off from China and South Korea, as Fukuzawa advocated. "Currently we cannot ignore South Korea and China," Mr. Nishio said. "Economically, it's difficult. But in our hearts, psychologically, we should remain composed and keep that attitude."

The reality that South Korea had emerged as a rival hit many Japanese with full force in 2002, when the countries were co-hosts of soccer's World Cup and South Korea advanced further than Japan. At the same time, the so-called Korean Wave - television dramas, movies and music from South Korea - swept Japan and the rest of Asia, often displacing Japanese pop cultural exports.

The wave, though popular among Japanese women, gave rise to a countermovement, especially on the Internet. Sharin Yamano, the young cartoonist behind "Hating the Korean Wave," began his strip on his own Web site then.

"The 'Hate Korea' feelings have spread explosively since the World Cup," said Akihide Tange, an editor at Shinyusha, the publisher of the comic book. Still, the number of sales, 360,000 so far, surprised the book's editors, suggesting that the Hate Korea movement was far larger than they had believed.

"We weren't expecting there'd be so many," said Susumu Yamanaka, another editor at Shinyusha. "But when the lid was actually taken off, we found a tremendous number of people feeling this way."

So far the two books, each running about 300 pages and costing around $10, have drawn little criticism from public officials, intellectuals or the mainstream news media. For example, Japan's most conservative national daily, Sankei Shimbun, said the Korea book described issues between the countries "extremely rationally, without losing its balance."

As nationalists and revisionists have come to dominate the public debate in Japan, figures advocating an honest view of history are being silenced, said Yutaka Yoshida, a historian at Hitotsubashi University here. Mr. Yoshida said the growing movement to deny history, like the Rape of Nanjing, was a sort of "religion" for an increasingly insecure nation.

"Lacking confidence, they need a story of healing," Mr. Yoshida said. "Even if we say that story is different from facts, it doesn't mean anything to them."

The Korea book's cartoonist, who is working on a sequel, has turned down interview requests. The book centers on a Japanese teenager, Kaname, who attains a "correct" understanding of Korea. It begins with a chapter on how South Korea's soccer team supposedly cheated to advance in the 2002 Word Cup; later chapters show how Kaname realizes that South Korea owes its current success to Japanese colonialism.

"It is Japan who made it possible for Koreans to join the ranks of major nations, not themselves," Mr. Nishio said of colonial Korea.

But the comic book, perhaps inadvertently, also betrays Japan's conflicted identity, its longstanding feelings of superiority toward Asia and of inferiority toward the West. The Japanese characters in the book are drawn with big eyes, blond hair and Caucasian features; the Koreans are drawn with black hair, narrow eyes and very Asian features.

That peculiar aesthetic, so entrenched in pop culture that most Japanese are unaware of it, has its roots in the Meiji Restoration of the late 19th century, when Japanese leaders decided that the best way to stop Western imperialists from reaching here was to emulate them.

In 1885, Fukuzawa - who is revered to this day as the intellectual father of modern Japan and adorns the 10,000 yen bill (the rough equivalent of a $100 bill) - wrote "Leaving Asia," the essay that many scholars believe provided the intellectual underpinning of Japan's subsequent invasion and colonization of Asian nations.

Fukuzawa bemoaned the fact that Japan's neighbors were hopelessly backward.

Writing that "those with bad companions cannot avoid bad reputations," Fukuzawa said Japan should depart from Asia and "cast our lot with the civilized countries of the West." He wrote of Japan's Asian neighbors, "We should deal with them exactly as the Westerners do."

As those sentiments took root, the Japanese began acquiring Caucasian features in popular drawing. The biggest change occurred during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905, when drawings of the war showed Japanese standing taller than Russians, with straight noses and other features that made them look more European than their European enemies.

"The Japanese had to look more handsome than the enemy," said Mr. Nagayama.

Many of the same influences are at work in the other new comic book, "An Introduction to China," which depicts the Chinese as obsessed with cannibalism and prostitution, and has sold 180,000 copies.

The book describes China as the "world's prostitution superpower" and says, without offering evidence, that prostitution accounts for 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product. It describes China as a source of disease and depicts Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi saying, "I hear that most of the epidemics that broke out in Japan on a large scale are from China."

The book waves away Japan's worst wartime atrocities in China. It dismisses the Rape of Nanjing, in which historians say 100,000 to 300,000 Chinese were killed by Japanese soldiers in 1937-38, as a fabrication of the Chinese government devised to spread anti-Japanese sentiment.

The book also says the Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 - which researched biological warfare and conducted vivisections, amputations and other experiments on thousands of Chinese and other prisoners - was actually formed to defend Japanese soldiers against the Chinese.

"The only attractive thing that China has to offer is Chinese food," said Ko Bunyu, a Taiwan-born writer who provided the script for the comic book. Mr. Ko, 66, has written more than 50 books on China, some on cannibalism and others arguing that Japanese were the real victims of their wartime atrocities in China. The book's main author and cartoonist, a Japanese named George Akiyama, declined to be interviewed.

Like many in Taiwan who are virulently anti-China, Mr. Ko is fiercely pro-Japanese and has lived here for four decades. A longtime favorite of the Japanese right, Mr. Ko said anti-Japan demonstrations in China early this year had earned him a wider audience. Sales of his books surged this year, to one million.

"I have to thank China, really," Mr. Ko said. "But I'm disappointed that the sales of my books could have been more than one or two million if they had continued the demonstrations."

Correction: Nov. 22, 2005, Tuesday:

Because of an editing error, a front-page article on Saturday about the popularity of comic books in Japan that unfavorably portray Chinese and Koreans omitted the full name and background of a person who was quoted as saying that Japanese artists portrayed Russians in similarly unfavorable ways during the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese war. He is Yasuo Nagayama, a Japanese author who has written on popular culture during that war.

Bill o'reilly, oh he's a funny guy.

2005-11-16T20:08:00Z

O'REILLY: All right, the Providence Chronicle is reporting that Rhode Island state senator Michelle Rosenthal, a Democrat, is proposing a law that levies a fine on all dog owners, or as she calls it, a "breeding tax", on all dog owners who don't have their pets sterilized. This is so typical of the Democratic mindset, folks. There's not a problem in the world that they don't think can be solved with more taxes. But more than that, this confirms what I've suspected for a long time: Liberals hate puppies. It's only a matter of time until Rosenthal and other ultra-liberals like her start demanding mandatory abortions for all dogs.

What could be more American than a boy and his dog? 95 percent of Americans identify as fluffy puppy lovers. But these radical-left, fringe groups that want to destroy the American way of life--they've gone after the flag, they're going after Christmas, and now they're going after puppies. And that's not right.

The Homecoming Transcript

2005-11-16T17:07:58Z

Because I am bored and want you all to suffer along with me, here is the transcript to the Homecoming halftime show as performed by the Williams College Mucho Macho Moocow Marching Band.

Homecoming 2005 - Harry Potter and The Sears Cup

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Lycanthropes and Rebound Popes, Warlock and Muggle, Folks who can't juggle, Fans of excitement and senators under indictment, Monkeys in a car, Ninjas throwing stars, Robots from afar, and pirates who say ARRRRRR!

Welcome - to the 2005 Homecoming Halftime Extravaganza, featuring the inexplicably powerful Ramblin', Scramblin', Spell-castin', Sand-blastin', Song-chantin', Constantly-rantin', Willow-whompin', chocolate-chompin', Wand-wavin', Day-savin', Mucho Macho Moocow Military Precision Regimental Marching Band and League of Wizards, under the directorship of Katy "Hermione" Dieber, Nick "Scabbers" Yates, and Matt "Jenkindore" Jenkins.

On a cold November day just like today, only more dramatic, the students at CowWarts Band of Witchcraft and Wizardry were sorted by the Sorting Silly Hat. Those brave enough to strike percussion instruments with valor (or at least really loudly) were sent to the House of Dorr Griffin. Students who had large lung capacity were sent to Huff-and-Puff House. The kazooists and strings were sent to the Stark house of Ravin'-Mad. And those who skipped band practice were Slytherin' Idiots.

Albus Jenkindore, wise and fearless leader of the Band, called the band forward one day to tell them of an ancient artifact. "The fiery goblet," said Jenkin-dore, "which has the power to sear flesh, and is thus known as the Sears Cup, has fallen for the ninth time in the last ten years into the hands of Lord VoldeMorty." The Cup of Sears was stored deep in the bowels of Stetson, guarded by the three-headed Minotaur, Fluffy. The Band went to search for it there, amidst a confusing labyrinth of moving staircases and intense action-sequence music.

The band, in its "This Staircase Will Self-Destruct in Twenty Seconds" Formation, will now play "Mission Impossible."

[Band plays "Mission Impossible" in Staircase.]

While searching through Stetson, the Band wondered at the actions of Headmaster Morty the Wise, who had only recently taken to calling himself "Lord VoldeMorty." He seemed not to be himself of late, almost as if he were being controlled from afar by another more sinister power. This became even more apparent when the band spied VoldeMorty sneaking out of Stetson with the Sears Cup, and packing as much of the school library as he could fit into his trunk, before driving off to the East.

Clearly it was necessary to save the world by pursuing VoldeMorty, but first, the band had to perform its halftime show at the annual HogWilliams Quidditch match.

The band in its "Gratuitous Flying Quidditch Broom in Spite of the Fact that the Villain Is Getting Away Formation", will now play "Gonna Fly Now."

[Band plays "Gonna Fly Now" in Broom Formation.]

After the Obligatory Quidditch match was over, the band jumped in its Flying Tour Bus to follow the Cup of Sears and its abductor. The band soon arrived in the foul realm of AmHerst, a land blanketed with evil (and smallpox). There they discovered that VoldeMorty was being controlled by none other than the Dark Wizard Lord Jeff-demort. Gasp!

Luckily, the band took out its Cheer Sheet and chanted the Ancient Enchantment Override Spell,

[Band turns and chants from field: "US News, US News, We're Number One in US News!"]

Morty the Wise suddenly remembered what was truly important, and was thusly released from the grip of Lord Jeff-demort. However, Jeff-demort simply laughed: "Ha. How will you defeat me with no instruments?" But the band waved a drumstick and shouted "Accio Sousaphone." The sousaphone came flying through the air and landed such that its bell completely enveloped the evil Lord Jeff-demort.

The band, in its Crushing Bell of Victory Formation, will now play "The Liberty Bell March."

[Band plays Liberty Bell March in Bell Formation.]

Having saved the day in an extremely predictable fashion, the Band returned to the Purple Valley. Albus Jenkin-dore proclaimed a celebratory feast called Harvest Dinner, complete with Every-Flavor Lobster, and the band sat down to a well-deserved repast in the Glory and Splendor Known Only as the Mountains.

[Band plays Mountains in Mountains, the Williams song]

i.e. The mountains, the mountains, we greet them with a song
nanananan...lalala something something something
aaaand this is the part we slooow dooown!
Mountains gaiely gaaaaelie ring!

Oh, you can also see the pictures I took here:
http://williams.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000203&l=2e32a

You don't need a facebook account to see it.

that thing in the sky.

2005-10-25T23:26:56Z

IT'S SNOWING.

:tries not to hyperventilate:

...cool.

hazardblue @ 2005-10-05T23:50:00

2005-10-06T03:50:38Z

Oh god. How is it already Wednesday? Tomorrow is Thursday, due date for paper and Indian dancing and the day after that is Friday and the day after that I will be drunk off my ass. Time is moving by very ultra fast. Good thing?

Genital mutilation yay!

I crawl out of my hole to cry.

2005-10-05T06:11:32Z

You're unfit to get knocked up if you're not married, so don't even try, missy! No intrauterine insemination, donation of an egg, donation of an embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer of an embryo, or sperm injections for you! And that goes double for you damn sparkly gay folk who're just looking to adopt and carry off our precious hetero children.

From the Journal Gazette:
The bill then requires “intended parents” to be married to each other and specifically says an unmarried person may not be an intended parent.

A doctor can’t begin an assisted reproduction technology procedure that may result in a child’s being born until the intended parents of the child have received a certificate of satisfactory completion of an assessment required under the bill.

The assessment is very similar to what is required for infant adoption and would be conducted by a licensed child placing agency in Indiana.

[...]

A description of the family lifestyle of the intended parents is also required, including individual participation in faith-based or church activities.

But yeess...but that's not the point! You see, Sen. Miller says:

“We’re not trying to stop people from having kids; we’re just trying to find some guidelines,” she said.

She did concede it would stop single people from using methods other than sexual intercourse but said “all the studies indicate the best environment for a child is to have a two-parent family – a mother and a father.”

[...]

“There’s a concern that there’s no regulation over this whole industry,” [Sen. Gary Dillon] said.

It's an industry now, eh? Whole big baby-making PLANTATIONS.

Two links here:

http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2005/10/3/223530/406
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/12813691.htm
Uhm. So. Indiana: pretty fucked up. The fact that this bill even came up on the table? So much cry.

So: can someone just tell me it's just a hoax? That, "OMG, Spring: you're sooooo gullible!"

iPod! Yes! But oh no!

2005-09-30T20:17:29Z

So the Japanese 101 gets rented ipods this semester. Yes, WTF yes? But in a good way. I was expecting stinky old used ipods but no! They're iPod NANOs! They're so tiny and...and tiny! I hope to god I don't lose it. Also, another part of the iPod WTF is...they're synchronized to one of the teacher's computers, so I think technically we're not able to import music into them. ???? What's the point of having an iPod if....?!! So any iPod savvy people on my friendslist??? I'd dearly love to actually use the damn thing cuz it's pretty cool. And I can get bragging rights. ;)

hazardblue @ 2005-09-15T16:24:00

2005-09-15T20:24:22Z

Rawrr... It's just one of those days when I'm incredibly annoyed at everything and nothing.

hazardblue @ 2005-09-13T00:37:00

2005-09-13T04:37:13Z

Williams is pretty awesome. My entry mates are really funny and nice, inspiring such quotes on the Great Wall in the common room:

"Mike, put your clothes on!" - Anya, Freba, Frank, Katie
"Our entry really likes their drink." -Frank
"I can't stand Mad Dogs.... I can't find my polo shirt." - Frank
"You can go and enjoy the foiliage [sic]" - Chris

Oh, and the classic:

"Where is John Vu??" - The Entry

So things are...going. The orientation felt like summer camp with cookouts and roadtrips and hanging out with random people, and that was good. Classes just started so they're still a bit boring with the syllabus stuff, but my Japanese class is pretty hilarious. Since we're not supposed to use English (...in a first year course... T.T) the profs (3) act out skits, use picture cards, facial expressions... It's pretty cute. The format is also really similar to my Korean class, so that's a plus.

HOWEVER, the asian languages are pretty hardcore at Williams: year long course, five days a week, and through Winter Study. And they use the most counter-intuitive way of romanizing!!
si, zi, zyu, zyo.... "J" sound if an i before z or pronouncing "tsu" when you read it as "tu" if something or another is in the third house on Saturn.

Kanzi.

just.... Kanzi. And tyotoo. And tuzuki. And tisai.

That's kanji, chotto, tsuzuki, and chisai, btw.

:cry:

I'd just like to not have to learn how to read romanization as a third (fifth?) language, all right? Because the romanizations aren't English. That's a bastard pygmy language using western letters...

But anyway, back to the naked stuff: Williams is apparently very very famous for its streakers. There's a streaking club, actually, (The Springstreakers, after the main "metropolitan" street) and the president was supposedly very chuffed to hear that the club had been slowly infecting other institutions of higher learning. We ourselves were treated to a performance on our first night here. There have been a few staged streakings, one notably timed to be in an article of the local newspaper: Students Bare All for Shock Value and Laughs, boston.com

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Professor Eva Grudin was about to lead her students into a discussion of whether an abstract painting was meant to invoke a certain part of the male anatomy when her class was interrupted by the real thing.

With no warning, two naked students barged into her Williams College lecture hall, struck a quick pose for the 150 students there, and ran out.

Nothing abstract here. Grudin and her students had just been streaked.

But this was no one-time prank by some drunken college students. It was yet another performance by two members of the Springstreakers, the latest unofficial student activity club at this elite liberal arts college.

"It's hard to get your bearings back and continue with your lecture after that," said Grudin, who let out a shriek that was followed by her students' laughter, then applause when the streakers stole everyone's attention from a slide projection of Robert Motherwell's vaguely phallic depiction of a bull.

With two weeks before the end of final exams, Grudin and many of the students on the prim 2,000-student campus in the Berkshires say the Springstreakers are offering just the kind of stress relief that so many need right now.

"It's amazing that they do this," said Mon Thach, a freshman who was streaked in Grudin's art history class late last week. "It was so funny, and everyone needs a good laugh like that at the end of the semester."

Springstreakers -- the name is a riff on Spring Street, which cuts through campus -- is the brainchild of Morgan Goodwin and Andy "Tex" Whinery, two skinny freshmen who say there's no bigger rush than dropping one's drawers and getting maximum exposure by running through a crowd.

"I haven't tried any hard drugs, but I have a feeling this is probably better," said Goodwin, a 20-year-old who claims he never did anything to attract so much attention to himself while growing up in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Since he and the 18-year-old Whinery -- who cut his streaking teeth in his hometown of Amarillo, Texas -- did their first nude dash through a freshman dormitory in December, they've staged about a dozen surprise streaks on the Williams campus.

Grudin's lecture was their first classroom appearance. They've also hit the library, several parties and an a cappella concert. And they're not without coconspirators.

The Springstreakers boast nine active members, all men except for one, and they're always looking to recruit new ones.

Before bombing through Grudin's art history class, Goodwin tried coaxing a few buddies into joining him and Whinery. There was plenty of interest, but no takers.

Membership requires a willingness to shed clothing and an ability to run quickly.

"A big part of our protocol is streaking while sober," Whinery said. "Being naked is nothing to be embarrassed about, and if you can only do it when you're drunk, then you can't do it with us. That's something we pride ourselves on."

So far, the Springstreakers haven't raised the ire of campus administrators.

"It hasn't impinged on our lives at all," Williams spokesman Jim Kolesar said. "I don't know that they've had any effect at all."

Streaking on college campuses, of course, is nothing new. As Grudin is quick to point out, she's seen plenty of streakers at Williams since she started teaching there in 1971.

"Their fathers were doing this in the old days," she said. "If they wanted to do something really funny, they'd get their fathers to do it with them now."

Goodwin doesn't pretend there's anything high-minded about running around in the buff, but if there is a social message he's trying to send, it's that the human body is nothing to be ashamed of.

"I feel the people we streak get something out of it," Goodwin said. "The most obvious thing is that they see something that's funny and blows their minds and will give them something to talk about at reunion in 10 years. But it gets to deeper things like people's ideas of sex and nudity and body image; things you might discuss in a classroom but now have a reason to talk about in a different setting."

So what does their audience think of the Springstreakers' body images?

"I was saddened to see only their backsides," Grudin said. "But they were nice backsides."

It's kinda fun to get into the groove and the culture here: study, work, party. Since there's really nothing here but beer and alcohol to distract you, it's pretty easy to get cracking at the books.... Or at least.... Get yourself into a habit. Because I have been procrastinating hardcore today. I shouldn't have turned the computer on... ^^;;

T-mobile has ZERO reception here and they have had me jumping through hoops to cancel my service with no fee. =/ So it will probably be a while before I get to talk to people from home. I'll probably get Cingular.... I'd rather they owned my soul for the next two years than Verizon.

Soooo. Yeap. Having a good time, my room is awesome, see ya guys on the flip side. =) (OH! But when I'm an upperclassman, I really want to be living in the residence hall that was converted from the old Williams Inn, with your own private bathrooms and walk-in closets, with mail and the dining hall downstairs. How awesome would that be? =))

The bingo first day.

2005-08-31T04:19:51Z

So. I am At College.

I got here yesterday, but it was mostly get there and then sleep. Hadn't quite realized how tiny New England towns were. Like... Do you remember when we were college-tripping up in Vermont? And we missed frigging capital Montpelier twice? ...yeah. Except there aren't even real highways--just routes that go straight through main street in town. And boy, do they mean Main Street here. But there are a lot of trees, which makes me happy. And everything's green and when there's nothing but bare leaves and snow, that'll be even prettier. And there's either a thousand squirrels on campus or just one very very hyped on mutant crack.

Today I got my room--so tiny! And yet mine! So yay! I'm thinking this is how people feel about their babies. Wow...this morning feels like yesterday. But I spent all day shopping for stuff in my room and going back and forth from my dorm to the restaurants/shops in Spring Street (HA! They got a street named after me!!) to Walmart (which is surely going to be the center of fun in my life, I feel it in my BONES) and back again to the tech center.... Very long day. I haven't had time to go to the foodplace cafeterias with entry-mates yet, but I have the whole year with them, so. My grandfather was instrumental in getting everything to fit in my room and prettying it up.... <33 He's staying the night and I'm going to have brunch with him tomorrow after taking one last trip to Walmart, which is about fifteen miles away.... ("Oh, you need a phone? Walmart. You need ink? Walmart. You need snow boots? Walmart.")

I just got back from a big meet-and-greet that took place downstairs... Just a huge clump of people engaging in a cocktail party without the weiners. It became quite soul-sucking, and I felt a short stab of abandonment whenever someone disengaged from the butt-sniffing to wander off to another group. Literally mid-sentence and they were gone. Did meet some cool people though. ...I suppose. :looks twitchy:

I wish I had a digital camera to show you guys stuff... Hm, I read somewhere that you can borrow still/video cameras somewhere on campus, so maybe I'll look into that. But I'm set up real good in my room, so that makes me happy. =) Decorating is so fun! I wish I had remembered to bring more postcards/posters. And um. Pictures. Cuz I didn't bring any. lol.

the realization hits....

2005-08-26T06:14:35Z

...ah dude.

My dad just made me realize that I'm leaving on Monday.

dot dot dot.

I just kept blithely answering "Oh, I'm leaving on the 29th...that's at least a week away" to realize. Uhm. Yeah.

Ahhh fuck. No wonder everyone was getting on my ass to move and make arrangements. Uhm. Oops? Sorry.

o.0 I need to make arrangements!!

llama llama llama

2005-08-26T04:53:55Z

llama llama llama llama llama llama llama llama llama llama llama llama!!

Here a llama there a llama llama llama duck