Finals week post 1: Magic!

It's finals week. I am too busy and exhausted to post anything of substance, and you are too busy and exhausted to read it. So my next few posts will consist of very few words.

Today I have two items of mind-blowing proportions. First, give this a listen. When you get to the bottom I'll tell you what it is.

by Shamantis

To complete your trippy experience, take a look at these crazy magic eye pictures!

From "Brother" (yes, the printer people):




Fixed-width text magic eye picture by Jason Unger:




The most epic thing I've ever found via the Interwebs, by I F F cool:



So that song you've been listening to since you got here? It's "U Smile" by Justin Bieber... 8x slower than the real thing.

Peace, love, and cappuccino,
Miss Rex

A pirate's life for me

All right, dear readers. I know you are all forward-minded fashionistas, so I feel it is my duty to bring this exquisite design to your attention.


It was designed by my friend the Hippie and it's eligible to win ten grand, at which point you'll be able to sport this epic yet elegant pirate on your bosom for something in the vicinity of $20. But you gotta give it your love! Cast your vote in the next 24 hours!

By the way, in case you ever wondered what the Hippie looks like, the answer is, he looks like this pirate. Yeah, he's pretty much Johnny Depp and stuff.

Peace, love and 1.5 martinis,
Miss Rex

Now I know what Mom went through

If you ever want to know what your mother went through when you were a teenager, try losing your roommate.

As crazy as she is, Taz is a creature of habit. She goes to bed early, gets up early. She hangs out with boys but won't let them touch her. She's random, but not reckless. JW, Jo Yo and I invited her to come see Adam Ezra Group with us tonight, but she declined on the grounds that her sleeping pattern had had a rough week and she wanted to get to bed early.

She made plans to watch an Adam Sandler movie with Abs, one of JW's apartment mates who she might be crushing on a little bit. Last I saw her she was vacuuming our living room in anticipation of his arrival, which was not at all extravagant for her - she goes all out for her boys. She will make a wonderful girlfriend when she finds the right dude.

Fast forward.

Went to the show. Paid three times more than we should've for parking because there was an event at the Agganis Arena next door. Lost tickets, found Rob (bassist), got new tickets for free. Got deafened and danced upon. Didn't stick around for drinks because the show went so long that last call was already over by the time we got out. Came home at 2:10AM to an empty room.

I was just going to go to sleep when it struck me how very odd it was that Taz was still out. It would have been less odd if she hadn't specifically said she wanted to go to bed early... but it still would have worried me. So I did what my mother always taught me I should do at at time like this.

I panicked.

Cue frantic phone calls, texts to JW asking if Abs was in the apartment (his light was off and JW was worried he'd wake up the roomie, so we never did find out), midnight wake-up call for Mnomanoms, and (half an hour later) a last-ditch effort sprint to the dining hall. I expected Lane to be closed at such an hour, but it was the last place Taz had told anyone she would be and the last place I could get into without a key to search for her.

It was open. This was the first time I've ever looked at our dining hall as a beacon of hope, and will most likely be the last. Sure enough I found Taz and Abs sitting on a couch downstairs, just talking. Taz was quick to point out that my fly was down. I was quick to point out that I'd been halfway into my PJs before the notion struck me that she was probably floating face down in Coy Pond and I had better go find her.

So, Mom, this post is for you. For the random times I didn't make it home when I said I would, or somehow failed to communicate what time I would actually be home, and for all the times I was over friends' houses with no cell phone reception (which was usually, because everyone I know lives in dead zones)... I'm sorry.

Peace, love, and undead roomies,
Miss Rex

Cheap thrills

I've always loved carnivals, especially at night. I love the atmosphere, with its chatter and sparkle; I love the smell, between the fried dough, fried potatoes, and fried sugar (also known as cotton candy); I love the competitive spirit drawn out by the games and the wide array of people you find there and the romance of it all. I know it's not all magic and innocence, but if you pay no attention to the carnies behind the curtain, you can imagine it is...

Best of all I've always loved the rides, from the little dragon roller coaster, spinning swings, and Crazy Bus I rode as a kid to the flying pirate ship and the circling hang glider I grew to love as a teen. Really the only one I DIDN'T love was the Ferris wheel, and that was only because I never had a boy to kiss at the top.

But there were a few things I'd never tried. I remember passing on rides like the Zipper and the Kamikaze because none of my friends wanted to try them or blaming it on the long lines. I think I was secretly just a wimp.


JW and I spent most of last weekend at the fair in his hometown and I decided there was no time like the present to give those crazy rides a spin (pun intended). After all, soon I'll be grown up and then I will be boring and get motion sickness from carnival rides and have to miss out on all the fun.

We warmed up with the hang gliders. It was worth how dizzy we felt afterward for those few minutes of soaring. There is nothing I would love more than the ability to fly.

Once the spins went away, we tried the Zero Gravity ride, which is the one that spins around so fast that centripetal force pins you to the wall. You'd think we would have passed on this one after getting dizzy from the glider, but our sense of logic isn't as strong as our adventurelust.

And so I found myself standing in a little cubicle the width of my shoulders with a little cloth harness buckled loosely in front of me, as if I would need that once the centripetal force kicked in.

It was the strangest predicament, being unable to move my head at all. When the ride stopped, I didn't feel all that dizzy... just like my brain was all squished toward the back of my skull.

After that we tried the Orbiter. It has six arms protruding from a center point (imagine a Daddy long legs). At the end of each leg is a group of seats arranged in an X. When the ride starts, the X spins around the end of the leg and the legs spin around the center point. It felt so odd that I couldn't help laughing throughout the ride, but I wanted to curl up in a corner somewhere when it was over. That one made me dizzy.


After that, we called it quits on the rides for the night (though not, of course, without the obligatory top-of-the-Ferris-wheel kiss ^_^).

But we came back the next day. With a vengeance. There was one ride we had yet to tackle: The Air Force 1 (also known as the Fireball, Afterburner, or Freak Out).


Like the Orbiter, the Air Force 1 has a spinning segment at the end of a long leg, but in this case there's only one leg and it swings back and forth like a pendulum. At the climax, you're nearly upside down.

This was by far the best ride we tried all weekend. Neither of us felt sick or dizzy afterward - just exhilarated. Now I feel brave enough to tackle the scariest rides of all... even the Zipper or the Kamikaze.

What's your favorite carnival ride? Which one are you afraid to try?

Peace, love and cheap thrills,
Miss Rex

Boss Fugly Bug

Sometimes when Taz and I are sitting around doing homework we hear loud crashes from above our room.

We live on the top floor.

The only possible explanation is that there is some kind of monster who lives in the space between the ceiling and the roof. I've popped my head through the ceiling tiles to look for him, but so far I haven't caught so much as a glimpse. However, we have strong evidence that what we are dealing with is a giant bug.

We call him the Boss Fugly Bug because he seems to be the last line of defense for all the flicky, fugly, flying insects that come to visit us when it gets warm, like the final boss that kicks your ass in video games.

We've never been sure what kind of insect our visitors actually are. When they fly, they're easy to mistake for wasps, but they're really harmless unless you squish them, in which case they emit the fugliest smell you can imagine. Hence they are "fugly bugs."

The thing we've noticed about these fugly bugs is that most of them are horribly mutilated by the time they get inside. They are supposed to have six legs, but we've found bugs missing two, three, even four legs.

Naturally this is because they had to do epic battle to get into our room. Or perhaps it's the border price. Seems it costs them an arm and a leg to come here (funny, it costs my family about that much to send me here, too).

One way or the other though, the Boss is responsible. Either the fugly pilgrims fight him to gain entry, losing legs in the process, or the Boss demands leggy payment and grants peaceful passage once the price is paid. Possibly the reason some are missing so many legs is that we bring them outside and they are forced to pay the border fee again to get back inside.

It's a fugly life for a fugly bug.

The Rainbow Connection

Most days I hate New England weather, but today was special. It was gorgeous and sunny all morning. Then around 4:30 there was a thunderstorm. This is a rare treat for us. We get a lot of dreary days, drizzly days, and downright downpour days, but usually we have to go to the mountains for a good thunderstorm.

Our room got really dark, and Taz and I amused ourselves counting seconds between lightning and thunder. The storm never got very close, so we got bored, she went somewhere else, and I went back to work. Then I suddenly noticed it had gotten very bright and the sunlight was bright gold on the pine trees outside. It was still pouring, which somewhat gave away the surprise, but as an avid rainbow-watcher I would have known that shade of gold anywhere. I ran to the window. There was a triple rainbow outside.

Luckily I have a fabulous new camera, so I booked it out to the quad and started snapping. While I was out there more rainbows appeared. I believe at one point there were five. Now for the record, I occasionally have random trippy dreams where I'm walking down the street and millions of rainbows appear, so after number four I started to wonder whether I was awake. Why yes I am on crack, thank you very much.

But this really happened, and I have the pictures to prove it!!





Most regrettably I do not have photo or video footage of this, but there was random spider lightning in between the two arcs at one point. It was epic on an apocalyptic scale.

For me, though, this is the best part:

Ever since the flood, the rainbow has been a sign from God, at least according to the Bible. And for a while now, I've been pleading with God to give me some concrete sign that he's paying attention and that I'm not crazy for writing him letters every day. My spirit is willing but my mind is weak. I can't seem to believe absent some miraculous, tangible evidence.

I think five rainbows is a fairly compelling sign.

Hello, my name is: Energizer Bunny

So today. Was a very, very good day. Very little was accomplished school-wise or internship-wise or anything-really-wise, although I did finally bully myself into writing some new material for the novel. It's been slow going. Even though writing and creating are what I love to do, once I'm out of practice getting back to it is excruciating. But write I did, and I also finished a series of maps last night showing the expansion of my imaginary world from creation to the present. In all that's about 6-8 maps of varying sizes and complexity. I'm somewhat elated from all that, but depressed thinking about the other things I'm neglecting in order to make progress with the thing I love.

But that wasn't the reason today was so good, or at least, not the only reason. I ate lunch outside with Taz (my roomie), Misty (a girl who lives on my floor and shares my unabashed love for Pokémon), and the guy I played private eye with the night the power went out, who shall henceforth be known as Cripple, even when his foot gets better and he ditches the crutches he has acquired since our first meeting. Cripple squished a spider that was crawling on me and I squealed like a little girl because he got icky spider guts all over my foot. He thought it was the funniest thing ever. I didn't. Then Cripple and I went to the beach for like 20 minutes and talked randomly about relationships (more specifically, his success at having one and my failure to do so), but we had to rush back because I had class.

After class I sat under a cherry tree and wrote some more until it was time to go to Zumba, which, coupled with the 82º weather and humidity, inspired me to try my first iced coffee (it was goooooood) and I have been totally out there ever since. Taz and I went for a walk around the quad and I frolicked and sang and laughed at things that weren't funny and threw my shoes in the air. I also pointed out that the side of one of the buildings we passed had a sort of cross on it and marveled that I had never noticed it before.

"It's more of a double cross, really," said Taz.
To which I ever-so-logically replied, "It's for a double Jesus!"

Coming back into Ferrin, I ran into another friend of mine and convinced him to come with me on another walk. I was still doing the Energizer Bunny thing (that is, going and going and going). I felt bad because I couldn't stop babbling about random stuff that only crazies like me would find interesting.

I decided I felt like going out to Gull Pond even though we didn't have a flashlight (you have to go through the woods to get there, which is kinda spooky at night on account of its being pitch black). Well, okay, I'll admit I'd been wanting to go out to the pond since Zumba ended because swimming would have felt really nice after that, but I think I freaked out Taz by announcing that I wanted to go skinny dipping so there went that plan. (For the record, skinny dipping was no longer "the plan;" I just wanted to go wading and have a random adventure walking in the woods at night, for it had been far too long since my last flight from the mysterious monsters of the woods. But the monsters didn't show up. They must not have been hungry for kids tonight. Or they only swim in AIDS-infested Coy Pond, which seems likely since Taz and I got chased by one near there once.)

So instead we just went swimming. The water was really nice from sitting in the sun all day, but I still got cold really fast so we headed back through the woods, at which point I remembered why people don't usually swim with pants on: It's squelchy.

Peace, love and skinny dipping,
Miss Rex

In which the lamb overtakes the lion (at least for now)

What a fabulous week it's been! Sunny and 60º+ since Wednesday! Let's take a look at the highlights, shall we?

10. Eating ice cream makes sense again!
9. The grass is not white. The sky is not white. Everything feels less dead.
8. I can walk outside in just a sweatshirt without feeling compelled to curl up in fetal position.
7. Birds! Birds singing, birds flying around, yes, even birds pooping on the quad!
6. Grass. Smells. Amazing.
5. Peepers!! I can't even tell you how many winter nights I lulled myself to sleep just imagining their incessant cheep-cheeping, and now they're here!
4. BEAAAACHHH! Salty air, warm dunes, and best of all, SANDY FEET!
3. Ultimate Frisbee. If you don't know what it is, watch this.
2. Going barefoot everywhere!
1. People! Everyone's outside and sun-drunk, which makes finding things to do a no-brainer. Nobody wants to do work when it's like this. People simply don't go to classes. I was lucky to have my only class canceled today... and nothing can top the moment of epiphany when I realized it was canceled.

I must say my hopes were not high on Monday when my GPS took me on a wild goose chase through Medford in the pouring rain. After telling me to turn left at a No Left Turn sign, which it does at least once a trip (that or directing me down one way streets... the wrong way), it decided that the best route to the building I needed to get to was to go around 3.5 sides of a block, amounting to over a mile of walking in the wind and rain with an already-mangled umbrella. I was late for the interview I was conducting, looked like crap when I got there, and was so cold that once I got inside my nose started leaking, just to add to the embarrassment. BUT, the interview was way fun, and the article got picked up by TWO sections of the Boston Globe regionals.

And then the sun came out (hence my sudden Disapparation after I promised to post this week)! I spent a lot of time at the beach IN SPITE OF THE GODDAMN WIND and played my first game of ultimate frisbee in way-too-many-months. Can you say glorious?

But today was the best yet. I ran into a friend I hadn't hung out with since he helped me make a 30-second PSA for fair trade coffee last spring. I joined him and his friends for lunch on the grassy space outside of Lane, and then a few of us went out into the woods to take pictures. For a change, I was not the one wielding the camera (mine happens to be broken).

The trails were still quite messy from the rain on Monday (and the entire month preceding Monday). The two guys who were there went barefoot, and since I hadn't felt like going back to Ferrin for my galoshes, I did the same. It was delightfully icky! Playing in the mud was never something I did as a child. I was very clean. We do have a rainy season swamp behind our house where my friends and I used to play, but the point of the game was always to build bridges over the muck or find ways around it. Falling in always sucked. So at first I was quite displeased with my choice of footwear, but I quickly learned that mud is incredible. End of story.

On the way back, one of the boys caught a garter snake (note, I have no qualms about using the word "boys" for these twenty-year-old men; they were certainly acting as such, and that is not a negative statement). It was adorable! (The snake, that is. Not the boys.) I was so excited to pet it because earlier this semester I was going to get a pet snake before I found out you have to keep them in freaking climate-controlled terrariums. But the poor little guy was scared and did that smelly musk thing, and it made him feel all slimy. Ick.

All of the above have conspired to make me an incredibly happy person this week. And also a rather sunburnt and very tired one. But we have one sunny day left before the lion cows the lamb back into submission, and I shall not let a moment go to waste!

Peace, love and step-rock-step,
Miss Rex

Damage Report: cones up, power out, pants down

I am at Starbucks. Yeah, I know. I never go to Starbucks. They are overrated, overpriced, and don't even make very good coffee in my opinion. And apparently EVERY parent on the north shore takes their kids here in the morning... huh?? But the Go-Co has no power today, and thus all networks are down. Even here I can't get my email. And my battery still has 63% to go before it's fully charged, which it has to be before I go back because there is no electricity at Go-Co. Well... I guess there's the new science building in a pinch.

I happened to be hyped up on coffee when shit (and trees) went down last night and thus was compelled to run around campus playing private eye. I'm not sure when the adrenaline replaced the caffeine. It seemed like a sweet deal last night, but both have worn off now and Miss Rex is ready for naptime. But before I pass out, here's the scoop:

“It was a dark and stormy night” doesn’t even begin to cover it. 40-50-mile-per-hour winds lashed rain against the windows; students sitting nearby kept wary eyes on the glass. Here in the Fishbowl, Taz and I closed the blinds for protection after watching the glass bow inwards like mere canvas. Then, around 11PM, a tree fell near the chapel, taking out some wires and cutting off electricity across campus.

“We’ll definitely be without power until at least the morning,” Go-Po Officer Cherry said at about 1:00 this morning. “National Grid hasn’t even responded because it looks like a bomb went off in the next town.” Other officials estimate that we could be without power until Friday afternoon. Authorities decided to cancel classes for Friday, February 25.

Because of the fallen tree, the main exit from campus was blocked off with cones and traffic was redirected through what, under normal circumstances, is an entrance only.


Newer residence halls, such as Chase and the buildings on the hill, were fully lit by generators, but the HUD dorms were completely dark. Students living in road halls were re-located.

“We want to make sure all the dorms have heat and fire alarms,” said Cherry.

In addition to the tree by the chapel, a second tree fell on the Emery side of Jenks, breaking a fourth floor window and gouging the bricks. Some of the trunk has been cleared, but the ground is still littered with debris and one branch settled on the roof. Another tree fell in front of Frost. Three more went down beside the road that goes past Drew Hall.


The wind ripped the front right door off the chapel, exposing live wires that officials have since shut off. But most mysteriously of all, a chunk of the public safety building now lies in the middle of the school’s main entrance. No trees fell in the vicinity. “It’s like the wind just ripped a chunk of stone off the building and hurled it into the street,” said one officer.


The blackout brought out the best and worst of students. Some halls used it as an excuse to bond: students in Ferrin had homework parties in the generator-lit hallways and played games in the first floor lobby. Others went puddle jumping and streaking. One account even said that students were looting the dining hall, although this has not been confirmed. Apparently Go-Co students can get away with anything in a crisis, and those of us who are smart realized this and took full advantage. I'm not one of the smart ones.


This guy I befriended during my sleuthing adventure summed it up as poetically as he was able at 2:30AM, after a night that most of Go-Co will find hard to forget: “The wind came through, the trees came down, the cones went up, and the pants went down.”

Now I am going back to sleep, since I got about four hours before rushing out to the only place I could think of with WiFi to break the story to the school paper. In retrospect my mad dash here was pointless because no one on campus has the Internet to read the story anyway and most of the damage is pretty self-evident. It was also poorly thought out because Panera would have been open by now and their wireless doesn't cost money...

Short Story Long... pt. 1

I don't know about anyone else, but I am immensely relieved to bid the holidays adieu. This season usually holds a lot of magic for me, but for some reason it just didn't click this year. It was December 26th before I even realized that, in spite of partaking in all the usual traditions, I had completely missed Christmas. And I was okay with that.

In fact, I'm really glad it's over. Soon we'll be able to drive places without getting stuck in shopper traffic (which will be fab since my closest friends live half an hour away from me... in opposite directions). We'll be able to bum around at the mall without getting stampeded. Of course, all the gyms will be packed with New Years Resolutionists in a week's time and working out will suck for the next month, but at least things are starting to get back to normal.

I've slept a lot this break and have been complaining perpetually of my boredom, but it's actually been a pretty eventful vacation thus far. I shall attempt to summarize, but you know this is going to become an epic game of Short Story Long.

Episode One:

Last Saturday I was sick of my family and needed to get out of the house (I'd been home for a day and half so far) so I called Wanda, who was still at school in the city, and said to get ready for an adventure; Adam Ezra was playing a show all afternoon and we were going. I had just decided. Well, no, I decided in November that I wanted to go; I just failed at planning to do so until the thing had already started.

So we get to this thing. It's upstairs in a brewery I saw Adam at once before with my roomies and Jo-Yo. But that time it had been late at night and there had been lots of drunken grown-ups dancing like horny teenagers. One woman lassoing men with her scarf particularly stands out in my memory. We kept a tally of how many people she danced with, giving her extra points for dancing with multiple guys at the same time. We didn't know what else to do with her. Oh and a creepy old guy may or may not have hit on Mnomanoms.

That night, Adam played two of my requests, Another Sunshine and Desperate Plea from the Heart of a Shit-head. The second one is not really a noisy brewery kind of song and the rest of his band didn't know how to play it, so Adam played it solo acoustic. I felt so special. Then after the show I talked him into sending me an mp3 of it even though he's only got a rough copy so far. This has not happened yet, and I suspect it's because he's been drunk both times I've actually spoken to him about said mp3.

Which brings me back to the original story of last weekend with Wanda. Adam had already been playing for a while when we got there and took an intermission just a few songs later. When I went to say hello, he remembered me and that he owed me an mp3. I was impressed. We didn't talk for long, but after the second half of his set I went over to say goodbye and ended up writing a reminder on his hand in bright orange Sharpie. Wanda was disappointed later on when I told her I wasn't giving him my phone number. She thinks we should get together. Aaand I might have a little crush on him, as well... ^_^

But I didn't have much hope of seeing the mp3 because once again, Adam had had a bit to drink. I can tell because he does what I do when I've had a bit to drink - i.e., he gets rather cozy with everyone regardless of how well he actually knows them. I got about five hugs from him before leaving that day (and he told me the way I spell "Mandii" is cute ^_^).

Wanda and I both made it home before a foot and a half of snow swamped the entire state. And that concludes adventure number one. Lest this post become so long that no one wants to read it, I shall leave off there. Stay tuned for episode two, in which I and everyone I know had our minds blown by Avatar.

Peace, love and The Half-Blood Prince,
Miss Rex

Fake Plastic Trees

The US government has it all wrong. They’re trying to fix environmental problems by throwing the green stuff at the issue (LA Times article), but the kind of green stuff we need doesn’t come from the Treasury or the Federal Reserves.

I read in a different newspaper, and now I can't find the link to share it, that China is in the process of planting acres upon acres of forest. The thing is, it's not enough to just stop putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. There's too much already there. We have to take measures to get rid of the stuff that's floating around up there if we want to have polar ice caps twenty years from now.

Enter my evil plan to save the world.

My new life goal is to plant trees. Maybe a whole forest is a little ambitious, but I can start with just a tree. Imagine if every person in the US planted just one tree. Just one. That's 300 million living, breathing trees! Think of the impact that could have. We could, if we worked together, literally save the world.

Takers? Anyone know where I can get that many seeds? Anyone know where I'd be allowed to plant that many seeds...?

Scatterday

...in which Miss Rex shares random moments of amusement, frustration, and enlightenment from her week.

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The other morning, a group of men were outside my window with what sounded like a jackhammer. Turned out they were drilling holes in the soil. Lots of them. As if the groundskeepers' perpetual mowing of our ten-foot strip of lawn wasn't noisy enough, now we got drillers, too.

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This year I finally won Homecoming Queen! To win, all you have to do is win more spirit points than anybody else by dressing in spirit week attire from Monday through Thursday. Last year I had 289 points and didn't win, so I made grand plans to outdo myself.

Monday: wear attire bearing the school's name or logo.

I got 50 points that day. Meh. I could do better.

Tuesday: Tartan day - wear anything plaid, or remotely checkered/argyle/houndstooth, for points.

I got 67 points. Getting better. I thank my floor for this victory.

Wednesday: Wear your class color! Ours has historically been "rust red." No one knows what exactly that means - it's sort of an orangey color that no one actually owns, so we've always just worn red. But this year some of the spirit week ads said to wear red, and some said to wear orange. My simple solution was to wear both. Unfortunately I was on my own that night, so I haven't got any pictures. I got 126 points; use your imagination.

Thursday: 80s day. This was difficult because it was less about what you wore and more about how you wore it. Shirt off the shoulder. Bra over shirt. Jacket over bra. Mismatched earrings. I did it all, somehow, but the most fabulous part of my fantabulous get-up was the boom box I borrowed from my RA. I made an 80s mix and blasted it as I made my way across campus to get my points tallied.

It came out to 53.

Grand total: 298 (including bagpipe blitz points, which you earn by running to the mini-quad whenever you hear the bagpipes play.) Incidentally, that was 200 points more than the runner up (now I feel kind of bad). Apparently everyone else with spirit graduated or went abroad. I feel like it was an anticlimactic contest, even though I won.

But I DID get more points than the homecoming king! Nyaa

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We had a variety show earlier. Boyfriend and I got there late and were really confused when the ushers asked us to take bags before sitting down. They were just brown paper lunch bags, filled with school paraphernalia, a program, and another, folded-up brown paper lunch bag. Umm.........kay?

But when some music majors took the stage for a round of "Piano Hero," all became clear. There were four of them playing the 1812 Overture on two grand pianos, and our brown paper bags were to be the cannons.

After popping them, we and everyone else in the balcony balled up the bags and catapulted them into the audience below us, shouting "CANNONBALLS!"

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According to a local newspaper, some schools are now offering cash rewards for students who take AP classes. What total bullshit is that?! I had to pay EXTRA to take AP classes! I had to buy 20-pound college textbooks and pay exam fees come spring. Not that these kids won't have to pay for those things. It'll just get balanced out by what the school pays them to enroll.

You know what these classes will look like, don't you? Remember how my friends and I entertained ourselves during my AP English class? Teachers will have hordes of students who don't give a shit about the subject. They won't want to work hard. They won't care. The kids who actually want to learn, say, history or chemistry at an advanced level will suffer as the class is brought down to the level of those who are only in it for the money.

I know I'm an idealist, but I just think schools should be about learning, that's all.

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How do blind people experience dreams? Do they have REM sleep? Are there images in their heads or is the dream world the same as the waking world for them - comprised of sounds, smells, sensations and flavors... without sight?

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Note: Thanks to Cynthia@RunningWithLetters for letting me know my comment link was broken! It's all better now, so leave some love!

Fields of Despair

It's been a good break so far. These weekend was positively beautiful! I wore a t-shirt all day Saturday. I took a bike ride, then I walked the dog, then my mom and I went to see my Grandpa, who has alzheimer's, and went out walking with him. It was kind of sad because he didn't seem to remember that we'd been in the woods before and was giving us a tour, but I won't complain since he seemed to know who I was. Then he took us to see some horses down a road near his house and I took pictures of them and let them kiss my hand. I miss horseback riding so much. I think I'll try and get a job at a farm next fall so I can learn to take care of the animals and gardens. This will accomplish two goals. One, me wanting to live on a farm someday so I can live sustainably and have milk and eggs from kindly-treated animals, and two, wanting to ride horses! Because you can't leave them sitting in the paddock all day. They need to run to be healthy. I might not be too good at raising vegetables, but I can ride a horse. =)

Boyfriend and I have done a lot of exploring. For instance, we walked halfway around the Reservoir on Sunday. Granted, most of the trails were transformed into babbling brooks by all the melting snow, but I'll sacrifice dry feet for an adventure any day. We even traversed the canyon when the water was running through and climbed up the opposite cliff face. It was EPIC. We were going to go back to Mordor on Monday night, but then the sky threw up and we postponed it. Instead we played random video games at Ravin's house and ate lots of crap to celebrate her getting old (i.e. turning 20). And then we watched the Swan Princess. Good times.

Since I'm bored and haven't posted in a while, I guess now is a good time to share the story you've all been waiting for. That's right. Mordor. The weekend Schneckleface stayed here, we went to Boyfriend's house for a movie night. Shark and Dick were party poopers and cut out as soon as the movie ended, so it was just the three of us going to this place that supposedly looked like the evilest corner of Middle Earth. Real encouraging, especially since the morals we took away from the god-awful horror film we watched were 1) Don't go to Hull (which is unfortunately the name of Boyfriend's town), 2) Don't hang out with white kids, and 3) Don't have sex. Well, we were breaking two out of three of those rules just going to movie night. We should've known that was a bad omen. XD

We had to walk quite a way to even get to the entrance to the woods because it's private property and we couldn't park nearby. We waited until there were no cars and booked it across the street and up a steep dirt hill. Schneckleface slipped and scraped her hand, but we made it without attracting attention. Then we followed this trail that was covered in snow and we made a whole lot of noise, which made Boyfriend really nervous, but it was nighttime and no one was paying any attention to us.

The woods finally opened onto a rocky expanse that dropped off into a big body of water. If I imagined the water was lava, the place totally looked like Mordor. We walked around a little and chatted, but it was cold and we decided to head back pretty soon. Boyfriend didn't want to make as much noise and suggested we take a different trail back. He said he'd never taken it before, but he knew where it came out, so we decided to follow it.

A little ways into the journey, we noticed something off to the side of the trail. Right away, I knew it was a vehicle. But it wasn't someone out to bust us for trespassing or anything; the thing was trashed. I would say it was about the size of a VW bus, but I didn't want to look at it too closely, to be honest, because I was getting some seriously creepy vibes from it. I actually ran over to cling to Boyfriend's arm and insisted that we walk faster.

A little further on, Boyfriend noticed a chain link fence off to the right of the path. The top was reinforced with barbed wire. I didn't get a good look at that, either, because right after Boyfriend said to be quiet and pointed it out, I heard a rustle. Now, I spent twelve days living in the woods. I know my rustles. I know the little animals make the biggest sounds, but at the same time, I KNEW whatever I'd just heard was NOT a little animal.

I looked at the others to see if they'd heard it. I really hoped they hadn't. I really wanted to have imagined it. But Schneckleface heard it, too, and then we heard a bang. Not a gunshot sort of bang though. I can't describe the sound well because by then I was panicking, imagining the headlines when they found our dead bodies in the woods and how disappointed my parents would be, wondering where they went wrong and hadn't they raised me better than this?

When we heard a second bang, Boyfriend shouted, "RUN!" as if we needed to be told, and we took off. Unfortunately, I suck and was running too close to the left shoulder of the trail, and I rolled my ankle about three steps into my sprint. Great, so I was going to be the one that almost got eaten by the monster, and the others were going to have to turn around and risk their lives to save me. That wasn't the role I'd wanted in all this. At least it wasn't as bad as when I fractured my ankle in fifth grade. I could put weight on it, even though it hurt a lot, so I kept running. I also managed to rip my hand open on some briars and was picking thorns out of my flesh as I ran.

We made it back to the top of the first dirt hill and stopped. Nothing had actually pursued us, of course, but I still had this awful feeling we were being watched and followed. Not to mention we had a fifteen, twenty minute walk ahead of us to get back to the car and my ankle wasn't feeling so great. The side of my hand was stinging a lot, too. Boyfriend and I were trying to figure out what we might have heard.

"The barbed wire was pointing in, away from us," he pointed out. "That means they were keeping something in, not something out." It quickly escalated to a government conspiracy in which they were hiding a monster in the woods for reasons we couldn't fathom. I was quick to add that whatever we'd heard was probably responsible for the mangled bus, hence the sketchy vibes I got from it. Schneckleface, being more practical than us crazy artist types, was like, "you guys, it was probably just someone trying to scare us off the property."

Oh. Yeah. Probably. But our theory would make a better movie.

Soooo I hobbled around for the next three days or so, and now, three weeks later, my ankle STILL hurts, but only if I turn it. I can walk on it fine. Still, I guess I probably need an x-ray. SUCK. Well, our plan is to return to Mordor on Friday, although it looks like it'll be cold and I may suggest postponing it again until Saturday night, which is supposed to be in the 40s. This time we're bringing weapons.

I'm off to visit Ash now. We're going to discuss the stories we're writing and watch some obscure movie by Miyazaki. I dunno what we're going to do when we run out of Miyazaki films to watch. Anyhow, about that story - I'm thinking I'll post an excerpt soon. BUT ONLY IF I GET COMMENTS! You hear? I want at least six on this entry or NO EXCERPT! Hehehe.... bribery. ^_^

An opera at a disco (and all you wanted was a rock show)

So guess what I did Saturday night.

That's right, I saw Mae. Spoiled? Maybe. Or maybe I just MAKE STUFF HAPPEN because I'm awesome like that.

I promised Boyfriend I'd post some of Mae's stuff, which I don't know why I bother because he'll just say it's not br00tal enough, but anyway, here goes.

^ This was the first Mae song I ever heard. I got it off the Warped Tour compilation in '05, and it was love at first listen.

^ This one's a bit older. I always liked it a lot, but even more so since this last show gave me a whole new perspective on it.

^ And this one's a bit newer. Not only is it infectiously catchy, but I LOVE the lyrics. I've found them to be thematic over the past couple months. Hopefully that'll change in the near future, but it'll always hold a special place in my heart because of it.

Also check out "Soundtrack for our Movie," "Telescopes," "The Everglow," and "Tisbury Lane."

So the deal was, the show didn't even start until 9:30 and Mae wasn't scheduled to play til 11:30. Seeing Roomie and Jenniferin sing in the choir only required us to miss the first opener, who I'd never heard of anyway. And truly, I felt like I was in the presence of angels listening to the college choir, so I'm really glad I stuck around for it. Kudos to everyone that contributed their lovely voices to that magical experience.

Although my energy levels were at about negative twenty four, when I realized how late the Mae concert started and that I could in fact make it there in time to see them, I got a second wind, practically got on my knees, and begged Schneckleface to go with me. I find that I can be very convincing when it comes to concerts. I think I must look so dang happy about the prospect of going that people can't help wanting to be a part of that or something. Oh, scenekidism. And then, just as I was convincing Schneckleface, her friend Jeremiah came over to see what all the fuss was about and I convinced him to come too. When the choir show let out, I had to get my car from Woodland, and I was so amped that I ran the whole way... and laughed the entire time. People probably wonder about me a lot. XD

Turns out the Middle East is right next to T.T. The Bear's, where Schneckleface, Kurisuchu and I saw all those Japanese bands last year. Like T.T.'s, it's very small, and like the sound guys responsible for the Japanese show, the sound guys for these bands seemed to think that venue size was an irrelevant matter in determining an appropriate volume for the show. The pain threshold for sound is 120 decibels, and they were pushing it. I see no reason for this, as I'm sure we all could have heard the music just as well, in fact probably with greater clarity, at something like 90 db. And it doesn't help that everything is bouncing off the walls like mad in a little club like that. Note to self: remember to actually bring ear plugs to shows. Don't just buy them and leave them in the desk drawer. They are no use there, even though the girls on your floor enjoy pretending to be elephants at all hours of the day.

But I digress. So the first band was mediocre. I was impressed with the instrumentation. If the vocalist would've spontaneously contracted throat cancer and given up on singing, I think I really would've enjoyed the set. Needless to say, I was more than ready for Mae when they came on. I remembered talking to Jacob Marshall, the drummer, about synaesthesia and about how MAE (which stands for Multisensory Aesthetic Experience) tries to recreate a synaesthetic, or multisensory, experience for non-synaesthetes, so I decided I would pay close attention to the videos they project during the show to see just how multisensory the experience actually was. It's not like I haven't seen the guys in the band like, eight times already. Hehe.

The set was more or less the same as when I saw them at Northeastern in November, but it was a fabulous setlist then and it was just as good the second time around. I noticed that some of the videos were just videos while others really did create a whole new experience and perspective on the music. Some of my favorites were the ones accompanying Skyline Drive, Soundtrack for Our Movie, and Just Let Go, but the best one by far was All Deliberate Speed. They had it arranged so that the same image appeared every time Jacob hit his cymbal in this one specific way. Sorry I can't describe the sound better; I don't know my drum jargon and I'd sound like a fool. But yeah, the synchronization was dead on. I started to believe that that image was actually what the sound looked like! It was incredible. I remember a few images from the rest of the show, but that was really the one that stuck with me, and listening to the song now, I still associate that image with the sound. Trippy.

They ended the set with a b-side, "Tisbury Lane," which I didn't know but really enjoyed, and a stripped down version of "The Everglow," which was lovely. A perfect conclusion to a perfect night.

Boyfriend will be relieved to know that the guy who hit on me last time wasn't even there; they had a stand-in bassist. He was more sober than Mark was last time I saw him (XD), not quite as adorable, and about as energetic as Mark when he wasn't drunk... i.e. you sometimes forgot he was up there; I remember the guys saying in an old interview that a lot of people didn't even realize Mark was in the band.

I would've liked to talk to the sub after the show, at least to compliment him on his purple bass and ask his name so I wouldn't have to refer to him as Mark's Sub, but it was already one AM so we didn't stay. I also would've liked to tell Jacob what I thought about the videos. I mean, I assume he's the band member most responsible for them since the multisensory aesthetic theory, i.e. the entire premise of the band, was his idea. But I found his blog yesterday and wrote him a lengthy comment in which I probably came across as a fawning fangirl. No, it was a legitimate comment on the artistry of the band! Not obsessive or fangirlish in the slightest! Or... well, one out of two isn't bad. ^_^ I haven't heard any response yet and don't know if I should expect one, but at least I've said it.

I spent most of yesterday writing my four page sociology paper, only to have the deadline extended because school got canceled due to snow today. But that's okay for two reasons. One, it freed me up to write the additional 500 words I needed for the final draft of my philosophy paper today, and two, having it done lifted a tremendous amount of stress. And now that the philosophy one is also done, I feel like a human being again! For real? If I could have bit the bullet and taken these things out early in the quad, I wouldn't have felt like I was losing my sanity all this time? >_<

So here's what's left this week.

1. Shoot a PSA with a team that clearly does not want to do this project and isn't responding to my frantic e-mails asking when the hell we're going to shoot this thing, since we've only got two days to check out equipment, show up at a practice at a time no one's bothered to find out to record VOs and close-ups, and invite dozens of people to stage fans going nuts in the bleachers, before the girls I'm working with start leaving on Wednesday. Well, I think the bleacher footage is right out, since a) we now have insufficient time to invite and organize all the people we'd need to fill the stands, and b) said stands are now buried in a foot of snow.

2. Reading. Lots of it. But most of it can be put off until break, at which point I can hopefully catch up on a lot of the stuff I've been neglecting because I've had to prioritize the classes that are ending this week.

3. Multiple photography projects that I've been neglecting for the same reason. Gahh. I am so behind in my shooting AND printing in that class, it isn't even funny. And unfortunately, a lot of that work can't be dealt with over break, since I don't have a dark room in my house.

4. Bring Boyfriend's application for the Italy seminar to the Global Ed Office and grovel for their mercy, as the thing is several days late now and we had to be creative about some of the requirements since he's not in school anymore.

Oh. It doesn't look so bad when I write it out like that. I feel better already. ^_^

-_- I can always tell when it's 11 PM because quiet hours start at eleven, and that's the time of night when all hell breaks loose on my floor. When 11:11 rolls around, I'm wishing for silence. Or at least, absence of shrill screaming and constant stampeding. Oh... Jon Schneck's away message says "the Bachelor is out of control." Maybe that has something to do with the even greater than normal degree of chaos on F2 East tonight.

Nebraska

Today I got utterly, hopelessly lost following a bike trail in the woods. Based on the mental map I had of the area, I can't imagine how I wound up where I did. I followed this trail for like 45 minutes. The map in my head said I had to come out at my campus, the road my campus is on, or the road on the opposite side of the woods, which we fondly refer to as Chewbacca/Chew Tobacco Road. Either that or hit the waterfront - inevitably. None of these things had happened yet and I started to worry.

I spied a little street down a hill to my right. The hill was steep, and there wasn't a trail going down to the street, so I stayed on the path. Then I came to a car. Right in the middle of the woods. There was no road leading to it; it must have driven on the footpath, and it must have been a long, long time ago, because this retro car lay open to the world, doors busted off and half-buried in the dead leaves.

Finally getting a little sketched out, I called up Wanda, just to hear a human voice speak reason in my ear. I was glad I still had a cell phone. I was glad reception still existed. I'd gotten the impression I'd walked into some sort of time warp or something and technology was long dead, or not even invented yet. I thought I would end up like one of Isaac Marion's characters, wandering the unfamiliar woods as centuries fly by without my knowledge until suddenly I come across this TV in the middle of nowhere and find a mile-long power cord to plug it in so I can watch the silver static flicker on the screen.

Wanda and I decided I should turn around and follow the bike trail the way I'd come. I should find my way back before either dusk or rain decided to fall. I have a very good sense of relative direction - that is, I can find my way back through a maze the way I've just come. This comes in handy since I often miss signs while driving until I've passed the turn I wanted. But this maze was beyond my comprehension. There were so many little turn offs that I couldn't recognize the one I'd come from. I wished I could've thought like Hansel and Gretel and left myself some sort of clue. Instead I doubled back again and found the road. At least that HAD to lead to civilization (if civilization still existed).

I promptly stumbled upon a cornfield and thought, "Crap. I'm in the middle of frickin Nebraska now. How do these things happen to me?"

But then I found an intersection with a road I knew (it had a yellow line down the middle - I knew I was safe then) and followed that road to a little farm stand. Walking in to ask for directions, all I could think about was how much I wanted food. You'd think I'd been wandering the woods for days the way I drooled over the fresh fruit and the tantalizing prospect of guacamole. But of course, I didn't have money with me. I don't generally bring cash into the woods with me. What am I going to buy? Mushrooms?

So instead of food, I got directions to my school. I cannot imagine how I was where I was. I followed the road back to the intersection where Aaron and I scared that driver that one time we hid in the bushes. It was still a half hour walk back to my dorm from there. By the time I got to Woodland, the student overflow parking lot, my legs hurt so bad that I was going probably 1/4 mile per hour. But someone was looking out for me when I left campus with, of all random things, CAR KEYS in my pocket! I gave up on walking and drove the last 100 yards home. The end.