Reasons to lose one's virginity in a dorm room

I watched Spaceballs today, and I recommend it. I'm not sure how I distinguish between "stupid waste of time" and "laugh out loud parody". Spaceballs was the latter, for me.

(Image is of the robot from Spaceballs.)

♦ Unless your friends figure out the ratio of virgins to non-virgins as a conversation starter, it's really hard to know how many people are virgins or not.

Some people stress out about the idea of losing their virginity because...well you can only do it once. And it has to be the first time you have sex. (Well, by definition.)

But virginity itself is not as valuable as some people make it seem. Sex is just another thing you do in your life, and as long as you're not hurting anyone, it's a good thing - burns calories and would be a neat experience. And there has to be a first time.

Personally, I plan to wait until I'm living away from home. Preferably not in a dorm room, because that's just so common.

• Living away from home, you are suddenly away from all the people you worry will judge you for it.
• Your parents - oh, you'll tell them after a little while, but you don't have to tell them immediately. You wouldn't come home to a "How was your night", and have to answer it.
• You're big and ugly enough to pay rent and buy groceries, so you're big and ugly enough to use protection. Maybe it's a right you earn when you go out on your own? That it's acceptable for you to do it at this stage of your life.
• By the time you are finished High school and going away to University, you're pretty much bored of innuendo innuendoinnuendoinnuendo but that's all.

Reasons for a girl to lose one's virginity with another girl.

• Because you like girls in that way.
• You don't have to worry about pregnancy.

Cinnamon

The saga of the blue haired girl continues. We still don't know her name. I was stuck at 68 words for the longest time, then I took out that she fell on the floor as opposed to the ceiling.

♦ I forgot the blue haired girl's smile. I'm not a...I don't like girls that way.

Today she was leaning up against the counter, with a simple dress that fit her body perfectly. I may or may not have tripped and landed with the cinnamon on my head.

Elyse 3

Today's Sunday Scribbling is about vision. IMHO, vision is the most important thing in life. Your eyes and your ability to process this information and turn it into pretty pictures - that's fucking important!

These are really interesting writing prompts. So incredibly random. Thirteen ways to look at writing an interesting, random story. Kind of like Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird, at least, it's in the same font...

Number eleven reminds me that I never wrote a satisfactory Elyse 3 (although I've written a few versions). I was going to write this as a 55 word story, but couldn't get it finished in anything close to 55 words. This is number 11, except that he does talk to her.

It was a dark and stormy night. Damn straight.

Image from photobucket.

♦ It was a dark and stormy night. Elyse knelt awkwardly in the waves with her candle, waiting to go through the motions of this scene again. She thought she was getting the emotions right, but they wanted something more.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, a brightly coloured beach ball bounced and bopped her on the head. She lost her balance, and fell forward into the waves. The sea water was swirling in the sand an inch from her face, but she managed to keep the candle out of the water.

For some inexplicable reason, she felt weak. Was she shaking? She sat back, and looked up at the cloudy sky for a second, to control herself and then looked down again. The candle went out.

She looked back and resigned herself to getting herself dried off and trying this scene yet again.

The camera person stopped filming and gave her the thumbs up. "Can I have my beach ball back now?"

Oh my shoot!

Fun fact: "Ach meine shize" means "oh my shit" in German. (Note that this phrase is only an approximation and I really have no idea how to spell in German. Shize is sort of pronounced like shy zuh.)

♦ I've been using this blog lately as a journal, but I don't really have the intention of using it to write down what happens in my daily life - just enough to explain what I'm thinking or am inspired by. Right now I am inspired by exchange trips to and from Germany (well not actually exchange trips, because they just go and live with a host family but don't reciprocate). It's something I wish I'd done. And the girl who was here is so nice and fun to be with.

I am writing a webcomic (I'm still not done the first strip, and there are going to be 34 in total), which so far has 3 characters but I think I'm going to add a fourth character based on C., my sister's friend from Germany.

I think cats are interesting. They always have this curiosity about things, but other times seem to be disinterested.

Thirty-four

Thirty four was my number at McDonalds, for the short time I worked there.

♦ On an old Questionable Content, it says:

"I once read something somewhere that stated 33 as being the average number of strips webcomic authors will produce before quitting out of frustration/boredom/etc."

Ever since I started reading through the archives of QC, I've had this urge to make a webcomic. But I keep telling myself - no, I'd need more dedication than just thinking it's a neat idea. I'l quit after about 33 strips or so.

But what if I start to make a webcomic with a plan to only make 34 strips, I'll be able to finish it this summer and not have to worry about stopping and starting when school rolls around. Then I'll put more effort into this finite number of strips.

It's going to be a story about people at university.

Friday Scrabble Blogging

M.K. (Let's call her Willow, because I would never be able to picture her with a name like that) doesn't seem like the type to read QC. I don't know what constitutes the type of people who read QC, and maybe she's a closet fan of indie music, coffee shops, and webcomics.

This blog gets updated without much thought, on the spur of the moment sometimes, and without worrying much about what people or cats on the internet think of it. I keep mentioning my blog to my friends, so I'm going to try making a censored version of this blog. With only some of the wittier, well thought out stuff. And memes.

Image from Questionable Content

♦ In grade 10, I was even more clueless than I am now. We were sitting on the mats at the side of the gym, where we usually went at lunch, and somehow got on the topic of said cluelessness.

Willow said "So, Chiya goes away to University and she's in her apartment with her boyfriend, and he asks if they want to do it. And she's like 'Okay!' and starts to get out the scrabble board. Then she's like 'Why are you taking your clothes off? But I thought we were playing scrabble!'"

I think Hannelore sort of reminds me of me. Either Hannelore or Pintsize, because there were a couple of comics where the characters were having a conversation and Pintsize randomly says "I can do deforestation". Sort of reminds me of another time.

Since we're remembering good times from grade 9 and 10, one time in grade 9 my friends said something about "special brownies" and I was getting bored of people always saying things I've never heard of, so I said "I like two bite brownies".

That sort of reminds me of something Pintsize would do.

She talks to her cat

These things are fun to write. Especially at 2am, those were better than this one. This one is a continuation of the Coffee shop one, so I think that's cheating and using 110 words instead of only 55. There'll be a part 3.

♦ On the floor of my blue apartment, my back against the bed.

"Would I make a fool of myself if I asked her on a date? She's probably not a lesbian. But if I don't try... What do you think?"

The cat didn't answer.

He didn't kill her, but he didn't stop it either

And I was trying to get to sleep after writing the last one, and once again got up and got my laptop. This one is morbider than the last one, and has a back story (woo back story) since I was going to write it as a short story.

Uh, so, maybe it'd be a good idea to stop stealing pictures from people's facebooks.

♦ He's very stoic. So, standing there staring at the brown leaves, he doesn't understand why his sweaty shoulders are shaking, silent tears fall, and breathing is difficult. It's a year later. It's the same clearing. He remembers her. The part he played in her death.

She lives in a treehouse

I'm on a roll. I wonder how one would get heating in a treehouse?

♦ The room barely fits my futon, with wooden shelves above me. To use the bathroom is a nuisance in the winter. I have to climb down the ladder, and walk through the chill. But it's a great conversation starter, when I mention that I live in a treehouse.

Coffee shop fantasy

This one was 103 words when I first wrote it. Down to 75. 61. 56. Fifty five is a small number of words. This one is inspired by a webcomic called Simply Sarah. The characters in Simply Sarah are very outwardly emotional, but it's still interesting and well drawn.

The person in the picture is not who the character in the story is. It's just a picture of someone who happens to have the same colour hair as the character. No I am not just saying that because I'm afraid of Steph.

♦ I'm not as graceful a girl as her. She's just closing up the coffee shop and we smile hello. She now has blue in her hair, which is nice.

I secretly smile, imagining kissing her among the various teas. That's ridiculous. I order a coffee and look away.

Fifty-five words

Now that's a good idea. This incredibly cute website called bird and moon has good ideas including being environmentally friendly, and writing 55 word stories. Nice number she chose. Six words is kind of extremely short, but 55 is just right.

I haven't skated on an outdoor rink that much, and last time I did I was working on single loops. Since then, I have landed a few double loops, one day.

It was the last day of skating before Christmas, not even a regular day of skating. It was test day, and I had just failed been told I would need to retry a test ('twas the European, for anyone who knows about skating). I'd never failed a test before, not even in school.

Test day was over early, so a few people stayed on the ice to skate before Christmas break. I decided to skip axels and try double loops, and landed a few. They were easy and fun, although nobody saw me. So it turned out to be a pretty awesome day.

I seem to be writing more in the descriptions than I am in the actual entry. Uh...

(Image from google.)

♦ Usually used to immaculately Zambonied indoor rinks, she was gliding around the edge of the imperfect outdoor rink, bending her knees. Accelerating around in a circle, the wind and snow blowing her hair wildly every which way. Easily, she took off and spun around one and a half times and landed backwards. Nobody was watching.

PS: On a totally different topic, here's a video by the theatre kids at the High school. I was noticing the camera stuff like looking through the railing, that would be by R. who is now doing theatre in University. The music was a little choppy but it's still shiny.

Although I'd suggest going and looking at something funny after. (I just registered for my courses and I'm doing sociology for my elective.)

What I would do if I ever went on ebay

I actually took my kelly dolls off the shelf yesterday to take pictures for the cast page of my blog.

(Images from QC and xkcd. And wow they almost seem to follow a sequence. If a bobcat could also blow up the refrigerator, that is.)

♦

I might enjoy going on ebay to rid of stuff... Collectible stuff that might be worth something to collectors but that I couldn't care less for. Like what this guy did.

I don't have an account on ebay or anything, but if I can find a bunch of pointless trinkets in my room I might give them to someone to sell on ebay.

I don't know what I've collected. I know I would not sell my kelly dolls, because they were my childhood. I won't get rid of any of them.

(But if anyone wants to trade kelly doll bodies, I wouldn't mind giving a few more of them the legs like stargazing Keeya/Liana. Actually, if anyone has a stargazing Keeya I'd probably buy it from you because I always wanted that one.)

But hypothetically... Would anyone actually pay money for...

• the remains of my pencil collection, in a shiny goldish coloured cardboard box?
  
  
• My eraser collection if I can still find it?
  
  
• An old cup from the first Harry Potter movie, and heck I'd throw in the little bit of film strip they gave out too if I can find it. (I'm going to keep the "The Magic Begins November 16th" poster from the first movie because I like irony too much.)
  
  
• Same for the second movie except I'd also give away the poster as well as the cup and the film strip bit.
  
  

Bisexuals are pretty cool, and Godwin's Law is kinda interesting

Something they don't stress very much in High school biology is that DNA doesn't give you the physical traits (phenotypes), it makes a protein that gives you the phenotype (or releases a hormone).

An unrelated statement: Godwin's Law (of Nazi Analogies) makes so much sense because it's true. As trivial as it is, Godwin is the one who put it in writing so he gets his name on it.

Actually, I think Godwin's Law is interesting in a sociological way (I'm a little fuzzy on what sociology is exactly.) It's interesting, not so much because of the fact that mathematically it makes total sense, but that society (especially people on the internet) seems so fascinated with Nazis. Maybe it's a psychology thing - Nazis killed lots of people, so one is being badass when one mentions them.

(Actually, I'm not entirely sure what the word badass means, but it evokes an image of, say, Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, trying to sneak outside when he's supposed to be doing his homework. Sort of like "tee hee I'm not supposed to be doing this".)

♦ If you're a guy reading this, replace all the "she"s with "he"s and you should sort of get the gist of it.

The Kinsey Scale seems to be logic with a fancy name.

"Nature rarely deals with discrete categories... The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects." --Kinsey Reports

In other words, sexuality is a trait like body shape or skin colour - you could be at either of the two extremes (say, with pale skin or really dark skin) or anywhere in between (nesquick coloured skin). For sexuality, you can be attracted to only boys, only girls, or anywhere in between. Bisexual people don't have to be attracted to girls or boys equally, they can have a preference.

Although genetics does have an important part in determining someone's sexuality, their influences in life also affect their sexuality. If the female role models around someone are more awesome than the male role models, then the person might be subconsciously more inclined to be attracted to females.

Whatever the cause of attraction to whomever, my thought if I were hypothetically bisexual, would be to try to find a guy to love. There are advantages to being opposite-sex relationships, though.

• Heterosexuality is more accepted in our society. I personally tend to avoid situations where others would judge me. Before I started wondering about myself, I would have judged an other girl if she liked girls.
• There's also the issue of practicality in certain goings-on between people who are in love. Girls are lacking certain parts, but they can use their resourcefulness to come up with a solution.
• Girls and guys have differences in the way they deal with problems, so it seems right to have one of each especially if you're going to have or adopt children (although single-parent families still manage).
• And despite overpopulation, there's the issue of the woman wanting to have a child - it's not the most important issue, but adopting wouldn't be the same.

But if you fall in love with a girl you fall in love with a girl. Woohoo University, here I come. I mean...uh...

I may have found a roomie/I am reading all the Questionable Content comics at work

I might be getting an apartment with a group of people (not entirely sure what that means though. Would we be sharing rooms in twos or something, or would there be some big apartment we could all share? I think the latter sounds exciting. But the former sounds more likely.)

And I'm going to have a friend named Faye. That makes me happy. And a friend from China. Which also makes me happy. And other friends which also makes me happy.

Nothing's set in stone but I think this would be shiny! I wanted to get in residence so I'd have a fighting chance to make friends. And what's better than that? Making friends on Facebook who seem awesome, and then living with them! I am getting my hopes up for this to work out really awesomely. And hopefully it will ^_^

(Image from Questionable Content.)

♦ I actually didn't have much to say besides stuff about my life. I need to stop blogging about my life, and start writing in my journal again! It's being neglected.

I've been reading my way through the QC archives, which almost inspired me to start (and eventually give up) a webcomic. And may have made me a little more inclined to accept the fact that at this rate I won't get into residence, because if Marten and Faye (the one in Questionable Content) can live together then anything is possible.

And are you beautiful and pale, with yellow hair, like wheat?

Sorry for another rant O_o. You don't have to read it. I was actually going to write this in my journal but figured I'd write it here instead. I say "I don't care" about what Jo thinks of me, but evidently that's not the case because I'm taking the time to write a blog entry about her.

Some people in my blog are not real people, based loosely on a few different people. I will try to give them variations of the same name (Johanna, Jo, Jenna) as if there are many copies like with cylons.

♦ My friends are awesome because they accept me for some reason. Even with my sometimes cluelessness.  Maybe it's because a few of them have only known me for less than a year and didn't know me back in grade 8 and 9, so they only know the Chiya who tries her best and is (if I may say so myself) nice.

Johanna (Jo for short) has known me since kindergarten, and has very little patience for my cluelessness.

So today I go over to where a group of people are watching movies at L.B.'s house.  H.L., W.K., and of course L.B. are there, and Jo.

Whenever I'm with Jo, I know that if I say something stupid she will look at me subtly, as if I have three eyeballs. So I start to worry, instead of just going with the flow. This worrying causes stupid sounding things to be said. And it goes on like a feedback loop.

Jo is one of those people who is great at making friends, it just comes naturally to her and she doesn't have to try whatsoever. She's a theatre major, and has a pretty smile.

Unlike most people who make friends easily, she somehow makes me feel not welcome. It's in her tone of voice when she talks to me, or a slight look reminding me that we both know that she's far better at talking with people than I am. Those non verbal communication things.

And verbal things too. Jo said she might not watch Rent. I say something along the lines of "Jo knows all the words to the songs" and she tells me that was mean. Maybe she assumes I am implying that I want her to leave, but even if I was thinking that I wouldn't say it. (So: next time no complimenting her on knowing all the lyrics to the songs from Rent.)

Dear Jo, I wasn't trying to be mean. What I think you should do actually is go find W.J. and hang out with him. You spent long enough complaining about how he is making you feel bad because he thinks you're ditching him to come hang out with us.

I've sort of stopped really caring what she thinks of me because it's not worth trying to please her. Instead of worrying when she seems to be possibly not liking me, I accept the fact that that is the way Jo is. Sort of a self-esteem thing: "well I'm sorry for wasting your time by existing, but you aren't worth vanishing into a puff of smoke for, so that's just too bad for you".

As long as we can coexist, and I don't waste my time disliking her, I'll call it a success.

It makes me laugh cynically a little, when I think of what it would be like if she saw this entry. She would probably judge me like crazy, and dislike me some more. But I'm a little bit indifferent to that. And there's a very small chance she'll see this entry.

</end of rant>

How may I sue you today?

I originally had this entry on my vox account, here

♦ Today in the newspaper there was an article about someone on a school trip who got drunk, fell off a balcony, and died. They are from the states, and the parents are suing the chaperones...I can't remember what large amount of money.

It's making the people who are chaperoning the High school Europe trip next Easter, think twice.

There were going to be a few people stay behind in Germany to visit a friend (I am jealous). But, they have to get permission from the school board and the school board has been reluctant because they need to have a chaperone with them the entire time. And I guess that chaperone couldn't be their friend's parents.

But they wouldn't sue if anything happened. What would be the point in suing? I guess because you're allowed to do it. Going up to a balcony and angrily pushing the chaperone off would just get you in trouble, so you sue them instead.

But you can take it a little too far.

I sue this doctor because the patient died of cancer. I sue this skating coach because this girl fell down while skating backwards slowly and hit her head and died. I sue this fox (the animal, not the network) for being out in the middle of the road. And I sue the people who made this bicycle for letting it fall over and break someone's ankle.

One problem with our society is that if you do something that could potentially be dangerous you make people scared that they could be sued.

Hmm, I wonder if you can sue for damage done by the constant worry that you might get sued?

Temporarily moving my blog over here...

For the fun of it, I'm goin to temporarily move my blog to http://paralian.vox.com/. It isn't very customizable but I found a pretty layout. Chances are I'll probably end up coming back to my blogger blog after a while.

And why not join a sorority, it could be fun

Tell Arthur Dent that the question to which the answer is forty two should be "To be or not to be". Because that is the question.

Small caps is kind of nice.

(Image from google.)

♦ To go greek, or not to go greek. That is the question. Not the only question, certainly, but at least it's a question and it has an answer.

I was looking on the internet and reading about the sororities at the university where I'm going next year. I don't know much about sororities, and like the idealistic notion of making my own friends, but I've been reading about one at least that I suddenly want to be in.

It looks fun, the people seem nice, and it's a community thing - you get to meet people from 2 other universities in the area.

Now I'm worried that I won't get in.

But here's my plan, and it seems to me like a logical and good plan: I am going to go to the "rush" or whatever it's called, for all the sororities and just be myself. I'll not try to make myself seem more into something I'm not, but I'll not make myself seem uninterested either. That way if I don't get in, I'll at least be able to tell myself I tried my best.

On a completely different topic, I'm going to upload drawings soon. I'm going to scan them after lunch.

A shave, sir?

Image from A Softer World.

I have just realized that I know how to say "I love you" in English, French, German, and Korean. I know how to say "I want to bomb your country" only in English.

I thought this before I found the picture. It's my view of international relations.

Image from A Softer World.

♦ This is interesting in stories. When characters are troubled. Mal in Serenity after they make their home like the Reavers' ships (I blogged about that here). Schindler in Schindler's List. Sweeney Todd. Maybe it's that you feel like you're seeing a hidden part of the actors that play them.

At one point I was thinking about Inara in Firefly, and how their society has different values than ours, and Inara is obviously a prostitute but it is perfectly fine. It's sort of cultural relativism, but I don't see anything wrong with it as long as she's happy and her clients don't have any, uh, infections.

I began to imagine a society where they accepted prostitution as a legitimate way to earn a living. But where acting would be discouraged. They could call it lying (like in Galaxy Quest), and selling your inner feelings, which is more personal than your body. This would be a neat idea in a science fiction story.

Friday Comics Blogging

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here...

Characters from Calvin and Hobbes, DoodleMore, Questionable Content, Toothpaste For Dinner, Wasted Talent, Dinosaur Comics, and xkcd. © of their respective creators.

♦ I think Calvin would enjoy meeting T Rex. They would get along really well, discussing the world and stomping on houses.

Hobbes would meet the guy with the hat from xkcd, and for some reason I think they'd get along well too.

Ryan and "Jam" would probably get along fairly well, since they both write and star in their own webcomics.

Susie has been in a comic with hardly any other girls, so I think she and Faye would get along. They could go to the Coffee of Doom coffee shop and drink chai lattes and stuff. Or just coffee.

The Toothpaste For Dinner guy (who's surprisingly easy to draw) will be ranting and raving about something while the girl from xkcd goes past on her electric skateboard. Maybe they'll have an interesting conversation.

Cylon number six reminds me of a teacher I had in grade 8. Her looks, I mean.

I've been spending time on 43things.com and cleaning up my room.

♦ I'm looking forward to going to university. I went on the facebook group for people who are starting in 2008 (which includes myself) and posted comments on a zillion pictures of people. Of all the people I saw that are doing engineering, there is one other girl.

Which is kind of neat. It's usually been the other way around for me, in skating or dance.

I am going to miss my friends. It makes me happy that I have such awesome friends to miss when I go away. I wonder if there's going to be book club anymore this summer.

Someday soon I'm going to get my hair cut. It's getting pretty long but it takes too long to wash.

Secretly human, at least

I can't remember the last time I had a speaking role in a school play... it must have been grade two Christmas play. And after that, in grade five, I was part of this "millennium minute" thing where only a few people were lucky enough to be chosen to make this one minute long informative video like the heritage minutes, for this contest.



We never heard back about that. Actually, I was beginning to think that I'd made up some of it. I googled it and couldn't find it (ohh "millennium" is spelled with two l's). But here's a website that mentions some random grade five class from halfway across the country, and mentions a millennium minute contest that may or may not be the same one.

(Image from wikipedia.)

♦ I was thinking of what sort of extracurricular activiti(es) I'm going to do when I go away for university, and I'm thinking I'd like to do swimming. I really liked swimming for the one year I tried synchro swimming, but I was just too busy with other things and had to let it go.

And dance, I think it would be neat to be in a class with a bunch of people who are better than me and be really inspired.

(I just watched a video of my cousins in their dance show, and wow. Especially the older one, (let's call her Hisano or An for short). An was sort of stuck up last time I saw her. I don't know if she still is, but I know she looks so much older now and she's amazing at dancing.)

And I know there's a theatre group, which would be fun. That was another thing I didn't do because I was too busy. I think I like the idea of theatre because you get to experience emotions but without exposing yourself. You get to hide behind your character. At least that's my idealistic notion of it, and it seems neat.

In life, I tend to hide my emotions. That way it's simpler and there's no room for embarassment. But secretly, I enjoy the little jolt that goes through me when I'm really into something, and someone appears beside me and it startles me. (I was watching Battlestar Galactica today...) It's dangerously thrilling to walk past him and feel myself get warm and know that if I look at him or start a conversation with him I'll babble semi-incoherently or blush or both.

I don't find him any more attractive than the next decent-looking guy, and he's already in a relationship. But I still think some neuron with a weird sense of humour thinks I love him. It's not logical, I don't want to love him...frakking illogic. But it's interesting.

Friday Musical Blogging

Maybe revenge is sweet, but when you're done with it you can no longer hate the other person without hating yourself.

♦ It's Sweeney Todd and Snape Judge Turpin.

Choosing to maybe be in a sorority - when you have to choose one thing the worry is for the things you didn't choose

I wonder how many other of the approximatively 5% of people who didn't get in to residence, are starting their first year and from out of the province? Frakking residence people, they should give priority to first year students.

♦ I've been looking at information about sororities on the internet, just to get a feel for what they might be like and whether or not I'd want to be in one if I don't get in residence.

It seems like an interesting possibility - people who are in sororities seem to like it.

It would be a great, almost ideal, way to meet new people and be close to them. Something I'm not sure I can handle on my own, especially if I don't get in residence.

I keep thinking of TV stereotypes about sororities. Apparently there are some sororities that party all the time, but most don't.

I think it wouldn't be defined by what's on TV, but by the people in it. There are probably some really interesting people.

But is it the best option? I don't know.

I expect my university experience to be ideal. And ideally, I wouldn't want to feel like there's some international centuries-old institution telling me to do things - even if it's things that would make me a happier better person.

I just like the (idealistic) notion of creating your own network of friends from scratch based on things we have in common, without having this 100+ year old organization choose my friends for me.

Will 45 of the about 2000 people in residence and ahead of me in the waitlist, drop out? So far in the past few days, anywhere from 0 to 4 people dropped out.

Update: Someone on facebook just said he was getting out of residence, so that's one down, 44 to go. I'm hoping that some of the people ahead of me in the waitlist will give up. I won't get my hopes up or anything.

Kind of indie-esque

I don't have anything specific that I'm obsessed with at the moment. So I can be very methodical and objective. The price to pay for being so objective is that I'm not inspired by anything.

♦ I use the word indie a bit more than would be normal. What does indie really mean?

"Independent film - a film produced by an independent and not a major movie studio."

"Independant Also see: DIY"

"Indie, an abbreviation of independent, is a term regarding a trend seen in music, film, business and subculture originating in the late 20th century."

--Google definition

I also like to say "kind of indie-like" or "indie-ish" or "indie-esque" about things that aren't actually indie:

I admire Bill Watterson (the person who wrote Calvin and Hobbes) for his not selling his characters to be capitalized on and made into random parapanelia. Going to a coffee shop with my friends is awesome, and makes me feel kind of indie-like. Even (to stretch it a little) I have thought of the characters in Firefly as being sort-of just-a-tiny-bit indie-ish. As opposed to Battlestar Galactica which is all organized.

So I think based on that, I associate the notion of "indie" with a group of really close friends who are just friends because they are, not because they're in some organization.

Maybe I just like the word indie.

forty-three things to do

a dynamic list

♦

Guaranteed residence is about as guaranteed as the mayor having them make a sewage treatment facility here

Waitlist is "in the range of 41-45". Does that sound hopeful?

I don't know. I expect some people to decide not to, but I can't picture 45 people simultaneously deciding to not stay in residence.

Dear Christa Pike;

We regret to inform you that your application was not successfully drawn in the recent Room Lottery. [Our school evidently doesn't have enough space in residence even for all our first year students.]

♦ First year students get Guaranteed Residence*, and all you have to do is go on your account on the internet and accept it.

* Not all first year students get this, only those who are just graduating High School this year. Students who took a year off but didn't live on their own don't get much of a chance for residence.

Oh well, I guess there had to be some stress involved in going to University. It can't be all daisies, and fluffy clouds, and worrying about marks to get accepted, and worrying that you're not accepted to the right program because they didn't make that clear, and living away from home for the first time, and having to make new friends, and raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens.

</end of rant>

It's the Zombie war, but please don't panic

They've all got stories. Not quite so shiny stories, but stories. Stories don't need to be happy, but all stories need hope. Hope that people will be better.

♦ I got the book World War Z for a friend of mine whose birthday was halfway through May (And I'll give it to her soon). At first I thought it was kind of weird - it doesn't follow any one person's story, and I'm not really into Zombies. But as I read more of it I started to think it's really good.

There are all sorts of people in it, and the things they do are probably what would happen if there was a zombie war. There are the people making placebo drugs that sell because people are scared. People in denial, they don't think it will get any worse until it does. People still more worried about the economy than zombies. Confusion and panic.

There was one part, a story of this woman in the army. They weren't told what was going on, just that they had to search through villages and the medical people would find zombies.

Finally, they're told more, and they're told that the Zombies could be at their homes and attack their families. They all try to get away and be free to go home. Instead they have to decimate their numbers, they have to divide into groups of ten and choose one person from each group to kill. Then they have to kill them.

The person their group chooses just calmly looks into their faces as they kill him. Others beg for mercy. But either way they are killing a human being, and have to otherwise they'll be shot.

That would make a neat idea for a story - to have this same sort of situation, but one group of ten run away and make it. They could go back to their rooms to get paper to draw names from a hat, but then run away and meet up in the forest. They could then have to live in the cold, and almost turn against each other. Maybe even one of them could die and they could ask themselves why they did this because they're no better off now.

Friday Starbuck Blogging

Someone I know has interesting facebook statuses (statii?) "...is precisely off-center."

Characters © battlestar galactica.

"Zach...failed basic flight. Or at least he should have, but I passed him."

Not really characteristic of a toaster

Complexity for the sake of complexity is just a way of increasing the chance that something will go wrong. (In a machine it's better to be simple, but in a Cylon complexity is interesting).

Today while driving home I was listening to the radio and it was one of those disappointing times when there's a bunch of advertisements, then songs I don't like. Sometimes, I change the station to the classical music station because the words have more meaning. Which is saying something because there are no words in the classical music I've heard on that station.

♦ I watched some more Battlestar Galactica and there's this one part I really like, at the end of episode 9 when the two Cylons are talking.

They slipped through, how's that possible?

She loves him now that she can't live without him. Her passion is making her more resourceful.

It bothers you, doesn't it?

We'll get them in the end.

No, it bothers you that you've never experienced it.

You saw the way Helo was when she went away. He was pathetic.

I can't help wondering what it would be like to feel that...intensely. Even in his anguish, he seemed to be so alive.

(The blonde cylon then looks sad for a moment, not really characteristic of a toaster.)

The guy has a detached curiosity. What it would be like to step out of his comfort zone and have intense feelings for someone, but that would involve the happiness - but also sadness. But he's always really composed, and logical. Intense feelings would ruin that illusion and make him look weak or even be pitied.

I wondered after watching the pilot if the Cylons were more than they seem. I wondered if they computed emotions, in order to show the correct physiological response, or whether they were so advanced that they felt emotions. It seems that they do feel emotions. Another thing is that I didn't know if the Cylons were all networked together, and that Sharon would learn their plan once she realized what she was.

They think independently. They sweat, as Starbuck pointed out. They want to see what it's like to fall in love. They may have software and not brains, but couldn't someone overwrite their programming to kill humans?

They are totally not too different than humans. Life or not, they're sentient beings, so if only they could get along with the humans. Out of how many people on the ships, is there not one who can hack into their software and erase the plans? Well, it's sort of brain surgery...

If I were to go back in time...

I used to daydream about time travel before I even read the third Harry Potter book.

In this activity we had to try to get everyone across the log going either direction. Our team almost did it.

♦ I used to daydream about having a time turner. I remember thinking about it in grade 8, because I have never been a loud outgoing person and I kind of want to try it. I mean, go back in time to then for a while with the same knowledge I have now, be a theatre geek, and not worry as much about things.

That would be really fun. Too bad I can't go back in time.

But then again I wouldn't want to go back in time yet. With university coming up (woot). I'd probably wait till I hit a mid life crisis, then go back in time.

So frakking subjective

If you don't know me in real life, this blog entry would be like listening to Hairspray on blast with everyone else singing along, trying to drive down a rainy highway where everyone else knows where you are but you got disoriented and want to get back to a place where you can go use the bathroom. Most of my evening was great, though.

Look, you're not supposed to guess who these people are and if you do then I apologize in advance. There was never really much drama that I was aware of in High school, and I don't really know how to cope with so-and-so doesn't like so-and-so-else but they're nice to each others faces... I wonder if they talk about me behind my back, and I wonder if I'd almost take that as a compliment.

I totally thought of comparing anyone who didn't take sides in an argument to "Switzerland". Before I read Eclipse.

♦ Let me get this straight:

H.A. dresses in clothes that are just a wee bit too revealing and don't fit her properly, and is annoying in that she thinks others are out to get her and then pouts in a corner. She seems fake, from the way she dresses to the way she acts. She lives fairly far away from others, but close to me, and works a lot. The consensus is that she's someone to be not invited.

C.D., her boyfriend (also known as her "f--- buddy") can be insensitive and take jokes too far, and has been known to on one occaison question aloud, upon arriving at the campground, why he is here when there are people he doesn't even like here. The consensus is that he's someone to not be invited either.

R.J. thinks people are out to get her, and has put things termed to be "emo" in her msn name and facebook status, in addition to attention-seeking feel-like-killing-self comments. Also has called W.K. a lesbian (even though R.J. has been called a lesbian before and it hurt her feelings). The consensus is that R.J. needs to lighten up and stop taking things so seriously.

B.L. is pretty and goes through boyfriends like it's going out of style. She was dating S and then met B.A. and is now dating him. Her mind is occupied with thoughts of sex, quite a lot of the time. She has great people skills and always knows what to say to people - a trick that (if left unchecked) could be used to manipulate poeple.

Etcetera.

So, what I want to do is:

Say hi to H.A. on facebook or msn. Although she seems fake, this could be because she just hasn't been given a chance to have fun without worrying, and she uses her makeup and too-low-in-the-front shirts, to hide behind. I'd like to hang out with her sometime and do something random (I don't know why spelunking came to mind) where she would be expected to wear a T shirt and jeans, and no makeup or meticulously done hair.

C.D. needs to notice he's sometimes being a jerk. A lot of the time he's a really nice guy, and when he realizes he's been annoying sometimes, I'm sure he'll keep that in check.

R.J. is receiving a letter from B.L. explaining nicely what she has been doing, and hopefully she won't take offence to it - well, she will, but hopefully she will think about what's said.

B.L. will hopefully be happy with B.A., and there's really nothing wrong with her having a drawer full of sex toys and talking about sex a lot. I don't know why people would want to not go back to book club though, and not answer their cell phone if it was her calling to wonder where we were (She was with B.A. so it's not like we left her alone). In fact, I feel kind of bad about that. Actually, I feel kind of bad that I thought it was a good idea too. One option is to apologize to her next time I'm talking to her, or a better option would be to come back next time. Or ask why we left her?

I wonder if guys get this sort of thing happening? It seems to me (now this isn't scientifically proven or anything) that guys' social interactions tend to be simpler than girls. This assumption is partly based on a fact (which was scientifically tested using a puzzle, or so I've heard) that girls are more likely to be social and guys are more likely to be better at solving mechanical problems. Which makes sense, because more guys do engineering, than girls.

Sociology and psychology...here I come veer away sharply in the opposite direction towards engineering courses, math, chem, and physics.

Secondary characters are interesting

"Haha, this is why we keep you around." It's okay be generally boring just as long as one says something spontaneous and unexpected?

"Must be strangely exciting
To watch the stoic squirm."

--Uninvited (Alanis Morissette)

♦ There are spoilers for Battlestar Galactica (pilot and next 6 or 7 episodes), and Harry Potter.

The kind of shows I like to watch on TV (read "TV" as SurfTheChannel), are the ones with interesting, well thought out characters. Recently I've taken a liking to that (sometimes) good looking, skilled character who the others keep around because they are just so gifted or have something important to add to the group. The character who's flawed but manages to hide it.

Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica is this way. She is one of their best pilots, and really an important asset to them, so even when she's less than polite person to her superiors, they won't fire her. She's dependable: they can depend on her to be really good at flying, and also to be the way she is (strong willed and stuff). But she also has a back story, when she passed Zach on his flying test when she shouldn't have, and in the of the 4th or 5th episode she cries after talking with the Commander about it.

Snape, from Harry Potter...He's an excellent potions master and (after the first book) you don't expect him to be anything more interesting than the teacher who dislikes Harry. But he has interesting back story too, that's only revealed completely in the 7th book but when you go back and look at the other books you see him differently but it fits. He's interesting, maybe partly because he's failed at some things in life - was teased by James and friends - and then became bitter. I like that he's imperfect and does a good job of hiding it (he's the only one who tricked Voldemort and Dumbledore), but then you see his story, in the pensieve then you hear the rest at the end of the 7th book.

Aaaand there was a character from another story I was going to mention but I can't remember who it was and I'm out of time - I have book club now. We do look at books but it's mostly just a gathering of friends.

Que c'est "blog" en francais?

In order to remember some of this language that I haven't spoken much since I graduated from high school (french immersion), I'm going to start occaisonally writing in french (and tranlating it into english after of course). University french had too much gorram grammar.

Image vient de ASofterWorld.
Ce n'est pas relevant a ce que
j'écris, mais c'était si mignon :)

♦ J'oublie comment bien parler en français. Il y avait quelqu'un ici qui était de France, et je l'ai parlé en anglais (sauf pour une fois, ou je l'ai parlé en franglais...de tout les choses a faire!)

Alors commencant maintenant je vais écrire sur mon blog en français un peu. Je peut écrire en français mais parler c'est plus difficile.

Une chose que je n'aimait pas au propos de le cours de francais en universite, est que tout les choses qu'on a ecrit n'etaient pas tres interessant - si on pouvait ecrire quelque chose en francais avec le passe compose ou le futur simple, le prof etait heureuse. Cela resultait en des bonnes notes, mais j'aimerais écrire quelque chose plus interessant, avec plus de profondeur(?)...

Pendant la derniere annee de l'ecole secondaire, on a lu des exerptes de les Miserables, et discute les themes et les personnages interessants. Ce n'etait pas trop facile, plutot un peu difficile mais pas comme l'anglais (ils esperent que tout le monde puisse ecrire tres bien en anglais). C'etait une bonne livre; ca me manque, un peu.

 

♦ I forget how to speak french well. There was somebody here from France, and I spoke to her in english (except for one time, when i spoke to her in "franglais"...of all things to do!)

So right now I'm going to write on my blog in french a bit. I can write in french but speaking is a bit more difficult.

One thing I didn't like about the university french course, was that everything we wrote wasn't very interesting - if we could write something in french with the passe compose or future simple, the professor was happy. The result of this was good marks, but I would have rather written something with more depth...

During our last year of high school, we read excerpts from Les Miserables, and discussed themes and interesting characters. This wasn't too easy, it was actually a bit difficult but not like English (they expect everyone to be really good at writing, in english). It was a good book; I miss it, a bit.

"Friday" Eyebrow Blogging

I should name this "Any day of the week X blogging". That way I'll get it right. Oh my, I can't believe that I just googled a song from Pokémon :)

Images found on google.

♦ Who has eyebrows like >this< and name rhymes with "clock"?

Brock is just strange but funny. ("Jenny, oh Jenny, Joy, oh Joy, a one woman's man's what I want to be but there's two perfect girls for me") I always thought he had his eyes closed.

Spock seems interesting although I've only ever watched one epsiode of Star Trek. He is half "Vulcan". The word vulcan sounds like volcano, which is kind of strange because volcanoes always seem to be so spontaneous and volatile not logical and calm.

EDIT: Today it occured to me that the word stoic evidently comes from the greek word stoichiometry, as both show the emotional capacity of a teaspoon. (Ok I'm getting a little silly again. Although I wonder if the two words do have something to do with each other?)