I did totally own my calculus exam. And my physics one. Next on the list is Linear Algebra, Circuits, and the ever-present Chinese. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

Somehow I feel like I'm taking more tests in the last month of class than I did in the entire first half of the semester. But enough about that. Let me rant to you about the piss poor planning of the SEDS chapter at my school.

I offer to help with the last minute planning. I'm thinking, organizing the volunteer schedules, adjusting any time crunches between lectures, oh no a lecturer canceled what do we replace him with, etc etc. Actual last minute planning. What they hand me is an email and a request: "Can you email the district manager of Einstein's and arrange the coffee order? Donation would be great, or else look into other places. We'll buy as a last resort."

TWO WEEKS.

That's how long before the conference they've given the coffee places to process our order, which we are asking them to donate. I estimated some numbers; we're asking them to donate over 80 gallons of coffee for this weekend. That's a lot of coffee! I can't ask one place because they have a 30 day minimum to process donation requests, the other place is too small to handle this kind of volume, and the Einstein's people have said they are unable to donate it at this time. That's just swell. so I asked for a quote and they haven't responded to me yet. Great. Just peachy.

^$&*%&*@&

So, I have to tell the club tonight that as of right now, we might be able to have coffee for the mornings, but not all day. Which, to be honest, why are we providing coffee all day? Maybe have it out for an hour in the morning, and then again around 4 or so? Or even just an hour around lunch as well. I don't think we're providing dinner, or lunch for that matter, except to the especially prestigious lecturers. Everyone else is fending for themselves.

The planning of this committee is going to give me a hernia.

In other news, with a planning team that I admire to no end, my Comicon manager emailed me the other day. The season of the convention has begun. However, the manager is stepping down and a new guy is taking his place. Both of them are fantastic. But the best part is that coordinators are stepping down from their positions. Which means there are openings. I can begin climbing my ladder. The only problem is I'm worried how much more work this will place on me, so I have to inquire as to what the exact duties and responsibilities are of a Coordinator, and see if I'm up for the challenge. Not to mention I'm sure there are plenty of more veteran moderators that are also looking to move up in the world.

But who cares! Comicon is coming. Granted, it is 6+ months away, but you can never start too early. Right, SEDS? -angry glaring vaguely at club members- And NaNo is right around the corner (two days holy crap I'm not ready), Thanksgiving at Jackie's in two weeks is looking to be a blast, and just a month left in the semester. I have cosplays brewing in the background, panels to hopefully host at the next small convention, and a paycheck to be coming just in time for the Christmas season. And movies! So many movies!

Hooray for the little things keeping my sanity when the big things crash and burn. Cross your fingers and hope the SEDS conference doesn't implode on itself.

So, guess who's taking 22 credits next semester?

This masochist. Though in all fairness 5 of those credits are going to be an audit, which means I don't get graded for it and it doesn't affect my GPA. The main problem was that two of my required engineering courses were at the exact same time as the two offerings as Chinese 202. So after hashing it out with both my counselors and a handful of professors, they decided that I can take the accelerated Chinese (meaning 202 is offered half the semester after Spring Break) with the stipulation that I take the accelerated 201 again in the first half of the semester.

Well, damn.

I mean, I guess my Chinese will get amazing, but that's a two hour lecture. Every day. And it's going to be a little tiring because I'm already passing 201. Taking it again is going to feel so repetitive. But that's my life now. Squishing the classes into each other and pulling loopholes out of the woodwork to make my life have some semblance of organization. It was a funny conversation though, with the Chinese counselor.

"So what's the problem? Which class should we bump 10 minutes?"

"That won't work."

"Why not?"

"It's not that the ends are bleeding into each other. The entire class of one, overlaps with the entire class of the other. I need a whole new class time."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

And that's how I managed to cause two departments and a half dozen faculty to scratch their heads and then shrug at me. Ah, college.

In other news, I think I just completely owned my calculus exam today. Now to study for the Chinese one tomorrow, and the Physics one on Friday. Excuse me while I go fall into a study coma for the next few days.

Until next time!

Homecoming was fantastic! Everyone looked so wonderful, and our tent was the most visited one there. We had actual fighters from the Renaissance Festival come out and do demonstrations, we had actual royalty wandering around (which is easy to do when the secretary is the prince of the court every year in February), and we had REAL SWORDS at our tables for people to look at and pose with.

Have you ever had those dreams where you "wake up" and do an entire day's worth of work, only to actually wake up and then have to redo the entire day? Because that happened to me with the last tunic. I thought I had cut and pinned it, and I just needed to trim it. But as I went to grab the almost finished tunic, imagine my surprise when all I pulled from the bag was a giant bolt of fabric? Lo and behold, nothing was done. It was 8:30 the night before the festival, and the tunic was still just a lump of fabric sitting in my bag.

I have never made a garment so fast in my life. I measured, cut, pinned, sewed, and trimmed that bad boy in two and a half hours. And I hopefully will never make another piece that fast. It turned out great, indistinguishable from the other one, and I'm rather proud that I could sew straight lines while I was so tired, but that was physically draining. Never again, I promise myself, as I mentally think about the time crunch between the end of school and the next convention. It's nice to know how fast I can bang it out though, if I'm ever in a time pinch.

Anyways, the festival was amazingly fun, and while we're packing up this little boy who I had to convince to hold a sword (what little kid says no to holding a toy sword?) runs up and is like "I remember you!" I would hope so, there's only two vikings here and one has longer hair than the other. But he was so sad to see us packing up, and Noah (prince secretary) asks him if he'd like to be a knight of the royal court. That kid's eyes lit up, and he got down on one knee to be knighted. Even if no one else had come by to talk to us, I'm glad this kid had such a great time. And then we all bowed to him, and his sister became a handmaiden of the court, and they both ran off practically flying.

To understand how good Noah is at this staying in character job, let's just say that the most common theory amongst the club is that his Ren Faire costume isn't a costume at all; he's a time traveling victim of a witch's spell, and that's the outfit he landed in. I sometimes think he forgets what era we're in, as we've more than once had to instruct him how to use his phone and how to post the minutes to the club website. He just seems so confused. But he's really good at period acting, so we'll keep him for now.

In other news, for the first semester in my life my registration for classes went smoothly. No paperwork to fill out, no petitions or meetings or exemption requests or audits. I clicked on a button and I was registered. Brought a tear to my eye. Granted, I may have to do some shuffling later, but for now I'm enjoying the ease. Why are all my classes only offered in one time slot? I had to finagle some scheduling to make it fit, because my required classes were at the same time as my other required classes. If it wasn't for Chinese, it would be ridiculously easy to fit everything. Or if I was only a Chinese major. If you stay in your department/school, they seem aware of the other classes, but too damn bad if you're doing literally anything else.

Oh well. I'm registered, we'll see where it goes from there. This Saturday is free comic day, one of my favorite authors will be there, NaNo is coming up, Halloween is around the corner, my classes are making so much more sense. Fall is finally here, SpaceVision is in just 3 weeks, the good movies are starting to hit theatres. Everything is just falling into place, the only way it could get better is if I could find a damn job.

Until next time, readers.

Look, I told you I'd be back soon!

Anyways, everything is steadily coming together. After wrestling with the monster that is my scheduled plan for the next four years, I have finally managed to wrangle something together that my counselor and I can actually agree on. Unfortunately, my end of the bargain was that I can't go to China this summer, and instead I am taking courses here to get back "on track", which, I was never off track in general. I was just not taking one class in the required semester, and that made the computer system practically crap itself.

It's okay, though, because in all honesty it's better for me in the long run. Flagship can only fund one summer trip, if you take more you have to find other grants or pay for it yourself. Now I'm only going to need them for the one summer. Plus, now I don't have to worry about what order of classes I'm doing it in, since everything falls into a nice linear pattern that makes perfect sense. And staying here for the summer is wayyyy cheaper than a study abroad trip.

Plus it guarantees that I'm still here for Comicon this summer.

But that's just an extra bonus. And now that I think about it, I can apply for more jobs around here since I'll be able to stay here for the summer months and work more hours than during the normal school year. My counselor was just worried about the pre-reqs for all of my classes, but it really worked out in all aspects for me. This is awesome!

And this weekend is homecoming. I'm so excited to be a viking. Everyone's costumes look so good, and Tristan is starting to get so pumped about costuming; he wants to do all the costumes for all the conventions. Maybe we'll just quit school ad run off to become convention famous. I'd like that. Though I doubt very many costumers get the chance to work with space programs. It's hard being interested in so many things. At least once a week I find myself asking if I'm really wanting to do engineering. I think I would make a fine Art major, as well as a Space and Earth Exploration major. But then Tristan talks about his history lectures and I remember how kick-ass history really is. And then I'm back to thinking physics is the coolest thing since sliced bread, and the week starts all over again.

And then there's that little voice in the back of my mind, muttering from under a tin-foil hat that I could be a famous author, I should just elope with my books and try and make a living off them. But we all know the likelihood of that is close to zip, and I just sigh as I dig into my calculus homework.

SWEET JESUS. It's almost November! NANOOOOOO

Yes. I will be participating yet again this year. I'm on a hot streak, and I'm not stopping now. I don't know how much time I will have for it, and this might be the year I pull a c-c-c-combo breaker, but I won't fail from a lack of trying. Plus, you know, Thanksgiving weekend is perfect for month end sprints. And we all know how good at word sprinting I am; last year's NaNo saw me pump out 17k on the very last day before submitting the word count. I wrote over a third of that entire novel in 1/30th of the allotted time. Pretty sure I crashed for 14 hours after that.

But I'm stoked. This semester is turning out to not be that bad. College in general isn't that bad. Granted I remember to feed my fish more often than I remember to eat dinner, but that's okay. These years are great. Not to mention, I know just how much everything is going to suck come graduation, so I'm enjoying it while I can. No more word of graduation for a few more years though (and -shudder- grad school), just gonna relish it while I can.

Halloween, NaNo, costumes, conventions. Yeah, it's a good year. Until next time!

I know I've been a little lax in the whole posting thing, but every night I think about it and tell myself, "Tomorrow night, when I have less homework due. Tomorrow night, when I have more time, and more to say."

Well, I guess it's finally tomorrow night.

I still have a ton of homework, still have so much to study. Three exams, a handful of quizzes, and a final project are all due this week. But I guess this is my way of avoiding all that nonsense for a little while at least.

Met with my adviser today. Apparently I'm going to be doing some juggling here real soon, or I'm going to be stuck in school forever. Curse you, prerequisites and the absurd order in which I am forced to take you. And somewhere in that jumble of engineering courses I need to fit my flagship classes and my honors program. Hoo-ah.

In all honesty, it's starting to look like it would have been easier to double in Mech and Aero engineering with a minor in Chinese, more so than all this nonsense. But anyways, I just sit in bed and think about my life before I go to sleep every night. As awesome as everything is, it kind of sucks from time to time.

But back to the old grind. Homework is staring me down from another tab, and I really should be going to bed sometime while it is still today. Sorry for my absence, but in all honesty my life is sort of on a long slow burn at the moment, nothing interesting to report for the most part. all I can say is that sleep is for the weak and ice cream has to be one of the greatest inventions ever.

I hope to get back with more to say once I'm caught up (haha, never) but Fall break is coming soon, and that will maybe give me a breather. Until next time, dear readers.

It's raining right now.

I don't want to do homework. I just want to make some hot chocolate and read a book and listen to the rain outside my window. Of course, I also want it to stop raining so I can run to the store for some groceries, but I can do that later. Why, physics, must you torment me so? I suppose I could do homework to the sound of rain, but that just feels like blasphemy.

Classes are going along swimmingly, coming up on a midterm for my programming class soon, can't wait for after fall break because then I'll have one less class to worry about. Hooray for half semester classes. Being a TA is great. I don't think I even have to be there for a few weeks because my professor is teaching the next couple lessons. I think, if I figured this out correctly, I get paid $50 a class I teach. Because I only have to be there 5 times for each course, and I'm TA for two courses, and I get a $500 stipend for being a TA. So all in all, not bad.

STILL no word from the space building position. I want to email them, but I don't want to sound bothersome, but they said they'd be done by the middle of the week and now it is the next week already. Aargh, I know I'm not eligible for work-study, but I hope that didn't put me out of the running for the position. I really like the job, I was hoping to get it, I think it would be super fun. Not to mention, having a paycheck is kind of nice.

Friday was fun, though. After my proficiency testing for Chinese (that was a laugh and a half), a few friends and I headed downtown to the art museum for this thing they do called "First Fridays". Admission is free, so you can just go in and wander the museum. It was really awesome, and they have an exhibit currently called "The Art of Video Games". It was okay, but it was more of a history of the medium rather than an art exhibit of the games themselves. Which was a little bumming, since between the four of us, we knew most of what they were showing. There were a few game surprises that were interesting, but for the most part the rest of the museum was more interesting than that exhibit.

In other news, the medieval club I'm in is going to start preparing costumes for the homecoming festival (apparently there is a football game that night too, who knew?) because the history cultural group managed to reserve a tent along one of the busiest stretches of the festival, and so they want members out in costume to bring people over to the tent. Tristan and I are going to be Vagarian guards, viking mercenaries who were often hired by the Persians and other Mediterranean armies. They have really cool cloaks. Everyone else in the group is being the usual Ren Faire royal gown get-ups. I wonder if we're allowed to have fake swords. Hmm, I'll have to ask about that. But I can't wait for the sewing parties, it's going to be awesome.

And other than that, my life has been pretty uneventful. Which is good. Don't want anything too crazy happening, I have classes to pass, dammit. It's still too hot for people to be calling it autumn, and I am not looking forward to the festival if it is still this hot out when we have to be in costume. Why didn't I apply to go somewhere out of state? Why didn't I apply myself harder in high school to get better scholarships? Why am I still in this hell hole of a state? Ugh, just three more years till I graduate.

It's going to be a long, hot, three years.

And now, an update of Sam's escapades in the kitchen: he cooked a spatula.

I had stayed late to work in the library and lab on some projects, so I hadn't come home until evening. I open the door and find Sam in the kitchen frantically trying to clean a pan that was full of boiling water."Sam, what are doing?"

"I cooked a spatula."

Apparently, he had been making some chicken, when it was done he cut it up and set it in the fridge and went back to his homework. A few minutes later, he says, he smells something burning. Upon entering the kitchen he finds the handle of the spatula on the floor and the main piece bubbling in the pan. He had left the stove on and the spatula in the pan. The pan had melted through the handle, and completely destroyed the part in the pan. I liked that spatula. But at least it was his spatula, or he might have found himself in some serious trouble.

Yesterday I had my first oral quiz in Chinese, and I was super nervous. This time, we had to make up the conversation on the fly with no scripting or knowledge of which prompt we would get, and then we would be randomly partnered for this conversation. I knew the grammar, I knew the vocab, but conversational Chinese is probably my worst subject. So when get up to the front to act out our skit, I'm thinking I'm just gonna stutter through it, forget half the conversation we rehearsed for two minutes, and then sit down and listen to everyone else raise the bar too damn high.

So imagine my surprise when as I'm sitting down the teacher compliments my partner and I on our naturalness. We were the most convincing, and non-awkward conversation to perform the prompt. And as everyone else finished, I noticed they all just sort of stood there and said the bare amount they could get points for. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty damn smug. But now I have to study extra hard because the teacher will be expecting that from me. Oh well.

And finally, I received an email from the professor who was in charge of hiring docents for the space building. Apparently they had a different budget from what they had been expecting, and so they were taking longer than expected to sort things out. Which means I might have a shot at still getting the position. I know that my hours have changed since I applied because I accepted the TA position, but I think I can do both. I don't even have to TA every class. I'm only expected to be there half the time, so I can definitely fit my schedule around it. Cross your fingers even tighter, because I need to save up for my summer camp in China, and getting a job could definitely help in that area.

That concludes this blog post, as nothing else of import has happened in the past few days, but I'm hoping to hear back from the professor sometime this week as to whether I'm hired or not. And you will be the first to hear the news, good or bad. Farewell, readers. Until next time.

Welp, as of now I have been to every single class I will be in for this semester, and boy is it gonna be a long one. My intro programming class is basically just teaching me how to program in a program I've already been using for a year. I thought it was going to be the more interesting and intense aspects of the program.

I was wrong.

Sadly, it's one of those pesky required classes, and so I can't exactly just skip it. [Insert heavy sigh] The good news is that it's only half the semester, so after fall break no more silly programming class for me, and one less final at the end of the year. But in general, most of my classes are pretty relaxed. For one thing, I can actually understand my calculus professor, and he patiently explains everything you need to know. My last professor just stood at the front of the class and would ramble about math that might or might not have been related to the topic at hand. He was obviously brilliant at math, but he was the worst teacher I have ever come across.

Chinese 201 is going to be the death of me though. The teacher walked in on the first day, I had previewed the vocab, hadn't gotten lost,  I was feeling good. She walks to the front, writes her name, turns to face us with a smile on her face. What a liar. She says, still smiling, "My english is not good, and you're here to learn Chinese, so no more english." And then she exploded in Chinese. I was not prepared. And being a native speaker, she's naturally a very fast speaker. Chinese is a fast language. Chinese people seem to always be in a hurry, and everything is about speed. You can definitely hear it in her lectures.

I've slowly begun to grasp the concept of listening and responding in Chinese, but she still talks fast. I feel like even if I was fluent, it would be very hard to keep up with just how fast she talks. I enjoy it, it's certainly a challenge, and oddly enough it is my hardest course out of an entire semester of engineering classes. Meredith came back from her summer program talking in complete sentences, and not a whole lot of pauses, so at least I have a live-in tutor for when I need help studying.

I also TA for two separate classes, both intro courses of course, but they are two distinctly different professors. They are certainly interesting people, but I definitely favor one over the other. And I just remembered that I have to make a lesson plan for my upcoming days, where I am the only teacher and the actual professor doesn't have to be there. Fun times.

Not much else has happened in class, because I go to boring classes with boring people. However, the apartment is alive and well. I love grocery shopping, I love cooking, I almost wish I had just gone straight to the apartment freshman year, but oh well, what's done is done. The dorms weren't bad, my roommates were okay, I suppose. But there was almost an air of not being on campus. In all honesty, I feel more studious in my apartment than I ever did in the dorms.

And speaking of roommates, Operation: Keep the Fish is a go. Thanks to Gabi, we found a fish that is almost an exact copy of my roommate's fish that I babysat over the summer. She actually wants it back, but I've grown attached to the damn thing, and in all honesty it was mostly mine to begin with. She got it for a birthday present, and then promptly forgot to take care of it. I fed it pretty often, and cleaned it the most. I think she mostly liked the idea of having a fish, but didn't quite know how to care for it. And besides, this fish is actually pretty active and interacts with you. He chases my fingers around the bowl, and gets excited around feeding time. I took care of the damn thing for 4 months, I'm going to keep him alive for as long as I can.

I do feel bad sending another fish to what will inevitably be a sad death at the hands of my old roommate, but I can't do that to the little guy I've grown fond of. Meredith could never remember his "real" name that my roommate had given him, and so she always called him Thor. I like this name. So now my fish is named Thor. We have yet to do the exchange, but I'm almost 900% sure that my roommate will not notice that a different fish is in her bowl. The new one is a little smaller, but she hasn't seen him in four months, I doubt she'll have remembered him properly anyways. As long as he's red, it'll be fine.

I'll let you know how it goes once it finally goes down, but it should go without a hitch. And as for my life, that's about it, really. I could tell you every little remotely interesting thing that happened to me, but that would take way too much time for me to type and too much time for you to read. And so I'll leave this off here, and hope that once classes start picking up I'll have more to tell you about. Until next time, dear readers.

Classes start in two days. Wow. Where did the summer go?

So, I was supposed to hear back on Monday from the Space building guys. Didn't happen. I assumed they were taking a long time to work through everything. So I waited all day today. I waited for an email as I steadily convinced engineering freshman to at least look into studying Chinese. That was a blast. Get back to the apartment, still no email.

It is now about 9:30, and still I haven't heard a yes or a no. So I sent an email to the TA office, accepting their offer. You know, not as glamorous or well paying. but it's money, and face time with some of the better professors in my department, so it's not a total loss. Plus I automatically get time off for anything pertaining to my school work, like finals, so that's a perk. Oh well. A job is a job, just one more bullet point to my resume.

Tomorrow is training, and a little more studying where I can fit it. And then it's the deluge of classes. At least I don't start off the year with my 7:30am class. This year is going to go great. I can just feel it in my bones. I've made my mistakes, I've learned from them. Sometime in the near future I go to apply for my passport, and my visa, look into flights to China for the summer camp I'm looking into.

But yeah, nothing interesting over the weekend happened. I just went home, hung out, enjoyed the last free weekend I'll have for a long time. This week was pretty plain so far, aside from what I've mentioned so far. Hopefully, once classes get going, I'll have some interesting stories to come up with. Though I'm crossing my fingers that they won't be about my professors. I've had enough dealings with crazy, eccentric, unkempt, unorganized professors to last me the rest of my career. But I can feel, deep down all the way to my toes, that there will be at least one this semester.

Oh, and in closing I had to teach Sam how to make pasta tonight. He can make all kinds of other foods, but he didn't know how to make pasta. It just kind of boggled my mind. How can you go your whole life, making other food, and not know how to make something where literally all you have to do is boil water? I just watched in horror as he tried to pour the noodles before the water was boiling, and this was after I stopped him from using too small a pot to begin with. I just couldn't sit there for long, so I had to coach him through the process while I made my tea. This is going to be an interesting year to see what he comes up with.

Hooray, finally back from camp!

It was such a blast, I was definitely bummed I was only a counselor for one camp. I almost stayed for another, I offered to, but they had more than enough counselors at check-in, so I had to lumber onto the bus with everyone else. But these past few days were certainly full of adventure.

Sunday, went and saw Pacific Rim with Gabi and Tristan. Holy cow, afterwards I was just so pumped. We should have gone laser tagging, or started a bar fight or something. I need to go see at least ten more times. Then we went grocery shopping, yay, food. I bought some general groceries I'd need, plus a little splurge on strawberries (hey they were on sale), and they gathered the materials needed for me to make them lembas bread. You know, the thing from Lord of the Rings that the elves make, one small bite can fill the stomach of a grown man yadda yadda yadda? Tristan found a recipe, so we all gathered in my tiny little kitchen and made some.

It was really freaking good. I mean, obviously, since I made it, but hot damn I wanted to make a dozen more trays of the stuff. It was especially good with honey drizzled over it, and with strawberries. I knew they'd come in handy. But we chatted, pulled a Minnesota good-bye as they straggled in the doorway while we talked for another twenty minutes. Eventually, I was left all alone, and started to pack for my next adventure.

Monday morning dawned, and I still needed to pack stuff. I had figured I could go to bed early and pack in the morning since all I really needed was a towel and some pants. They give the counselors all kinds of clothing, it's great. So I hoisted up the sleeping bag, grabbed a lembas square from the kitchen, and I ran out to the bus stop.

I was a good half hour early, since I didn't know how long the bus takes to do it's tour. I thought I would have plenty of time to get to check-in. I'd be there to help and have time to change into the counselor shirt we were given and required to wear.

Nope.

The bus didn't show up for so longggg. I must have just missed the previous one or something. But that took a while. No problem, once I got on we were cruising right along. Then we get to the transportation hub. The smaller shuttles, the city buses, the light rail, all of them stop right here. It's crazy. But we loitered. I assumed we just had to wait a set amount of time for passengers. Everyone else had gotten off. No one had told me that the bus was in fact turning around, and I should have gotten off to join the bus that had been in front of us.

Well, great. But I still have time. So I ride it around, the bus driver said he stops at the cross street I need. I have to push a destination button so he knows who wants to stop there, which is pretty clever. So I press it and sit down, all alone on the bus and hoping I can make it. We're driving, and I can see the building, looming over all the small shops and boutiques that line the street. It's on our left, so I knew I'd have to cross the street. But he keeps driving. He goes around a corner. 'Must be a bus stop there,' I figure. But the building stays on our left, and then it slowly slides backwards away from us. He keeps driving.

I was so close.

Now I'm back almost all the way to my apartment after riding the bus loop. I get off and catch the next one going the right way, maybe this time it will go right. I get off at the transport hub to get on the proper bus, check. I tell the driver I want this station, and I press the button, check. I pull the cord to indicate I want to get off and the driver miraculously stops, check. Finally out on the streets again, I have to make my way to the building. I may have gotten off a little prematurely, but I'd rather walk an extra block than have to ride the bus around the loop again.

Check-in went great, the bus ride up was long but fantastic. 4 hours later, we're all piling off the bus and the coordinator catches me unloading the bags.

"Yellow 1, right?" I nod. "Yeah, I had to reassign you, you're now Yellow 3." She hands me a slip of paper with my camper's names. Ethan. Perry. Max. I see a pattern here that I wasn't expecting to see. I've been reassigned to a guy cabin, because 5 counselors didn't show up, and there is always more girl counselors than there are girl cabins. I inwardly groan, because who knew what they could be like. But I take the paper and go find my cabin assignment, standing with the three other counselors who will be lodging in that cabin.

We hike down to it, do our ice breaker introduction, they all seem pretty laid back, and then we're off to lunch. First activity after that was boat building. There had been a general consensus at lunch among my boys that they were all pretty lazy, and so they had agreed to not care what they won or lost. I shake my head, but lead them to the boats.

About ten minutes into building it, they suddenly become very invested as to whether or not their boat will in fact work. Then another ten minutes, and they're doing everything they can to make sure it works. This enthusiasm just continually built over the next few days, and by the time we got to the final activity on the last day, they were the most gung-ho team there.

We may not have won any points at Jeopardy (though the final Jeopardy question was the one piece of trivia I knew and had kept telling them. The second it was asked I think Ethan jumped four feet in the air and sprinted to turn in our answer), and our boat may have slightly sunk in the second round (we won our first round, yay!) but they were always ready to go. I was so proud of my cabin. I almost don't want another camp, with another cabin. I just want them to come back every year and hang out. I honestly think guy cabins are better than girl cabins. They just seemed way more into it than any of the girl cabins, especially the one I was roomed with. None of the girls talked when it was time for bed. My camp last year, we stayed up forever talking about stuff. These girls just seemed a little apathetic when it came to the camp.

But I gave all the guys my email, told them to contact me if they had questions or just didn't know what to do. I hope they keep in contact, because honestly, they were super. We have a good freshman class coming in, most of the campers were awesome. But alas, we finally had to get on the buses, had one final goodbye, and then the long journey home began. I think I fell asleep off and on, but suddenly we were right outside the building again. After making sure the campers all got picked up, I headed for the bus, which went a lot smoother this time. As in, I didn't have to ride three different buses to get home. Checked my email, I've been selected for an interview for the job.

I talked a little, and scheduled it for Thursday, because honestly as soon as I got home I was suddenly tired. I probably could have pulled off another camp, but I'd be dead by the end of it.

Thursday. Get up, get ready, bike over to the interview. Show up an hour early. Whoops. Oh well, I get to look at the exhibits and cool off before I have to go chat with the professor. He was really nice, and after a bit of chatting, he mentioned how they had received almost 80 applications for the position, but they had culled it down with resumes to about a dozen. I was in that dozen. I could have run cheering up and down the halls, but that would have been unprofessional, so I just nodded and smiled enthusiastically. My interview may have gotten a little off course when I mentioned space exploration and he started talking about his research and I mentioned a news article and whoops there went the time. Now it all just comes down to whether my schedule fits what they need. I should hear back from them by Monday.

It's going to be a long weekend.

And that brings me to today. Meredith is finally moved in, we had some experimenting in the kitchen (garlic powder and soy sauce tastes like mana from heaven) and then just some general busy work before school starts, her practicing some calc that she forgot, me making flashcards for Chinese that I forgot. I should have studied more over summer, but too late. Oh, and I've been asked to go talk at the engineering freshman welcome about our Chinese program, since I'm the only engineering major in it. I think there's one more guy, but if I remember right he's currently in China, so that leaves only me. Goodness, look at me being so busy. I hope there are enough hours in the day.

By this time next week, classes will have started and hopefully my life will be a little more stable as to what is actually going on. I'll have a job, either as the space building tour guide or as a Teaching Assistant. I'll have homework on a regular basis to keep me busy. I'll have laundry and grocery shopping to do. No more adventures, sadly, to spice everything up. But I think this year will be just as exciting. I'm certainly excited for it.

Oh, and the meteor shower looked fantastic. Everyone assumed I was the expert once I mentioned it, because literally no one else knew it was happening. This led to me constantly being asked questions like "How many will I see?" How ever many your eyes can catch. "Has it started yet, can we go to the field?" Seeing as it isn't exactly dark yet, I would hazard a guess as to no, it hasn't started yet. "Where should we be looking to see them?" Try up, that usually works for me. And of course I'm the one in charge of the field and making sure the campers don't die in the dark by tripping over stuff, because I was the one leading the star gazing impromptu activity. Oh well, it was enjoyable at least. I'm glad the campers liked it. Probably one of the highlights of my year.

Can't wait for next year.

Ah. Welcome back from the summer. I have to admit, going from 8 weeks to nearly 4 months off was definitely terrible. I had no idea what to do with myself by the time June started. And classes still don't start for another two and a half weeks.

But all in all, not a bad summer. And now I'm getting ready for yet another exciting year in college. Not in the dorms this year, I and two friends have gotten an apartment. Nothing big, nothing fancy, just something manageable that is infinitely cheaper than the actual dorms. I moved in last weekend, because it was convenient and I have a camp I need to get to next week, and I figured my parents would appreciate it if I didn't ask them for a ride to campus at 6 in the morning.

The only bad thing about moving in a week before any of your roommates is if they have all of the furniture:

That there is the living room. And my sad lonely little chair. You can't even see the whole room my camera isn't that wide. So for now, that is the only furniture in the apartment aside from the kitchen table and what is currently in my room. It's a little lonely, and slightly awkward when you open the door for the maintenance man to come in and fix something. You can see his eyes try to do a once over of the room, but all they have to land on is that solitary chair. Like I'm trying to live all alone in a two room apartment and not doing a very good job of it. Oh well. Meredith should be here in a week, but Sam won't be joining us until but a few days before school starts up.

I moved in on Saturday, what do you know, it's hot. Every other day so far has been and every day leading up to it had been tolerable. But not the day I move in. My fridge was ironically too hot to touch and bring in when we first unloaded it from the truck. Thankfully I don't have a lot of things, or it would have been a long day of moving and unpacking. As it is, it still quite a fair amount of time to build my bed and desk up. but of course, once we're halfway done, we realize the piece we were missing was rather important. 

Thankfully the guy I bought the bed from happened to be in the area, and I finally managed to get a hold of him in time to have a bed to sleep on that night. So, once the bed was done, mom and dad left me to my devices, which mostly consisted of unpacking my clothes and wiring my motley assortment of devices. In the morning, I tried to organize what little there was left for me to do, and fixed up the bathroom. Damn shower curtain kept falling until I put some mounting putty on the ends. It worked perfectly. Until I took a shower.

It fell on top of me while I was in the middle of scrubbing my head!

I don't know what was worse, the scare it gave me or the way it hit me on its way down. But after I had wrangled it back in place, naked and thankful I was alone in the apartment, I went to go and clean up the kitchen. Put my dishes away, make some dinner. Mom found a rice steamer in the garage, I decided to give it a whirl (it's so tiny and compact and perfect for this, thanks so much mom!). How have I only been eating rice from a pot all this time?!?! I don't know how, or why, but steamed rice has  to be a thousand times better than the stuff from the pot. It was the best bowl of rice cereal I have ever made for myself.

Went to bed, feeling accomplished after all my hard work and praying the shower curtain didn't fall while I was asleep and scare me awake. My bed is rather close to the ceiling, see? Not so much to be a problem, but if I were to jolt awake at, say, I dunno a crashing and clattering of a damned curtain rod, it would very much become a problem. but I'm still alive today, so nothing could have happened. We'll just have to wait and see if the curtain tries to murder me again.

Today, was uneventful. I got the password for the study-room wifi, which conveniently comes into our living room and is how I am posting this today. Meredith was calling the internet people sometime soon, but I can live with this for now. The maintenance man came today as well, because on move in we discovered this little guy hanging out in the broiler drawer of the stove:

Poor little thing was completely glued to the bottom by its melted rubber tires. It took a little prying, but it came off without too much of a fuss. I definitely like the staff around here, they are cheery and professional. so much better than some student run apartment complex hosted by the university. But they are a little farther than the student ones, not that it really matters when you have a bike. Oh well. We'll just have to see how the year goes, one day at a time.

Tried doing a burpee today. If you don’t know what that is, basically you jump up, drop into a squat, pop your feet out behind you, pump out a quick pushup, hop back to your feet, and jump up, doing it all over again. I could jump, I can squat. What I forgot was that I can’t do pushups, and proceeded to fall on my face. I think I’ll stick with jumping jacks and bicep curls for now, with the occasional pushup routine thrown in, done slowly.

In other news, nothing too terribly exciting this week. Visited a friend twice, but she has cats and I forgot to pack medicine. I think I’m slowly inoculating myself though, as I seem to be lasting longer without dying every time I go over. I honestly thought about letting the cats out (she puts them in her bedroom when I visit, bless her) but then I thought that was probably a little premature, cocky, and insane. With my luck the cats would jump into my lap and I’d go into anaphylactic shock and die on her couch. So they stay in the bedroom still.

And I received an email that I have been offered a TA position. Unfortunately, they offered it right after I had applied to another job, which would severely affect my hours of availability that I had reported. So I can’t say yes. I’m still holding out hope for the one I applied to; not only is it better pay, but I really really really want to do it. It’s basically a tour guide for that building I’ve mentioned before, the space one with the really cool open house and 3D theatre and the meteorite collection. I think I’m a good fit, but I’ve thought that before and still have never been hired, so I’m not holding my breath on it just yet.

Speaking of jobs, I go to camp on Monday. I get to be a counselor, which I’m hoping will be good fun, and that we won’t get rained on. Mostly because the Perseids meteor shower is going to be in full swing, and actually at the peak when we’re up in camp. It also happens to be an excellent stargazing spot, so I’m doubly excited. Now I’m just crossing my fingers that counselors don’t have a curfew, and I can go out around midnight, when the meteors are at their best. But I won’t be back until Wednesday, which also happens to be the day where if I’m selected as a finalist for the tour guide position, will be my interview date. Hooray, I’ll probably smell like camp.

And finally, I’ve got my room situated and cleaned. I’m really liking the set-up, and it’s cozy. The desk is huge, which I love, and the bed is big, which is new. I’ve actually got wall space to put up posters, though I haven’t got around to putting up my stickers from last year.

Here's my room as it looks from the doorway. I am loving this new bed, by the way.

And then a little to the side. There's my fridge, handy little thing, and my backpack on a hook that came with the bed. Just to the left of the frame is where my closet it, but that's not interesting so no picture of that.

My desk, with plenty of room for my computer, extra monitor (if you're a student, seriously, invest in a second screen. It is literally the most useful tool I've had all year) and any textbooks I'll be needing to use, along with space for my actual homework to be done.

And finally, my fishtank! Alright, so it isn't my fish exactly. It's my roommate's from last year. But I've really grown to like him, he is an interesting fish, at least more interesting than most. 

Oh, and I think I’ve learned how to use a gas oven and stove. The stove isn’t so bad, but the oven doesn’t ding or anything once it preheats, and everything smells like gas. I’m sure I’ll get used to it in time, but it certainly is a new experience. As long as nothing catches on fire more than it should, I think I’ll do great.

Like I said, camp will be until Wednesday, and I can’t see anything exciting happening this weekend, so you’ll probably have to wait until then to get an update. Unless something spectacular happens in between then and now. Which there won’t be. Because there never is.

Two posts in one day?!?! I must be crazy.

But, this one will be short. It's just sort of a status update really. Remember when I said to take care of yourself? Well, make sure you are surrounded by people who do the same. I am currently sucking down hot tea surrounded by fruit, trying to convince myself to go to bed. My roommate and suitemate were tossing bronchitis back and forth for the past month and a half, and now I think my last suitemate and I are finally succumbing to it in the crossfire. But that's what they get; they have terrible eating habits, terrible sleep patterns, and generally don't live well.

I even cleaned out our room and scrubbed the bathroom when they were really picking up in illness. There was bleach and lysol everywhere. The whole suite smelled anti-bacterial, and there was going to be no way I could get sick. If I'm sick during spring break, someone is going to die. I have midterms this week, I can't afford to be sick. For the love of all that is holy, if you live with other people, be courteous, watch your health. Maintaining yourself helps keep them happy. Because if I have bronchitis too, all hell is going to break loose.

So, if you don't hear from me soon, it's probably because when I'm not in class or doing homework, I'm sleeping. Because sleep and tea are always the best remedies. Let's just hope I can make a speedy recovery.

All right. Haven't posted in like two weeks, but I was insanely busy.

I have had three exams, a paper, an interview, and plenty of little things in between to keep me preoccupied. First off, the interview. It was to be a housing assistant, live in the dorms and keep an eye on the freshman sort of thing. I thought the interview went well. But I guess so did 500 other people. Yeah, I didn't realize how many people had applied. So, in the end, I didn't get the job. Now I have to figure out away to pay for another year of school. Hooray, universe, anything else you want to throw at me while I'm down?

Exams, let's not talk about them. They've all been those ones where you look at them, think 'I've got this, this makes so much sense!' and then they are returned with red marks everywhere. Ouch. And apparently studying doesn't work, because the problem is I'm not clever. I can do the math, I can do the theory. What I can't do is look at a problem and instantly know I have to manipulate it, turn it inside out, and then sprinkle it with fairy dust, look at it through an x-ray lense, and then it will be workable. You can't study to be clever.

And so, with this post, I am going to recount all the things I have done wrong in regards to school, and what I should have done instead. This is in hope that anyone reading this who is heading to college, still struggling with college, or even still in high school, because I'm coming to realize that as different as they are, college and high school can be pretty darn similar in terms of how to play the game.

1. DON'T PROCRASTINATE. This has been beat into the heads of everyone ever since we've started school. Heck, there are quotes and sayings throughout history about it. "Don't put off till tomorrow what can be done today" sound familiar? And guess what? They're absolutely right. There are times when I can be a day or two ahead of my workload, but it never lasts long. If you have free time, do your work. Force yourself. Once you start it, your brain makes you anxious until it is finished. It's like looking at a blank page before writing. It's easier to continue once the page has been started.

2. Eat right, and on time. If you eat junk, you will feel like junk. There were some nights when I would just grab a burger because it was there and quick. It was faster than waiting for a healthy deli sandwich or taking the time to make a salad. And those nights, and the morning after, I felt terrible. Tired, sluggish, uncomfortable. Also, don't skip eating. I don't mean eat constantly, just when you're hungry and make sure you're keeping fueled up. Take care of yourself.

3. Use your resources. I can't even begin to list off tutoring opportunities offered by my school. Online, study center, professor office hours, the list goes on and on. They are there for a reason. The lectures and text book are good and all, but sometimes you need that extra oomph to understand, or just one more explanation. People learn in different ways, find out what works for you.

4. Enjoy yourself. It doesn't have to be all work and no play, you just have to know where to draw the line. And sometimes, when you have to be clever with homework, doing something fun and creative can get your brain pumping. You're in college, a new environment, explore it a little. Go to that little ice cream parlor down the street for floats with friends. Explore the nightlife, if that's your cup of tea. This goes with taking care of yourself. Having fun recharges your batteries for those nights when you have to write a physics lab and it takes you 6 hours.

Let me know if you've learned anything else, or want more details on something. these are just my own personal mistakes I've learned from. But they were good lessons, and you can't get anywhere without a few knocks now and then.

My god what a busy weekend.

Interview for the CA position went along swimmingly. I went to bed so early, I actually woke up before my alarm. To my surprise, but it really shouldn't have been, my roommate and suitemate were still awake. Sort of. It was about 6 in the morning. This is what happens when you have Fridays off. You stay up all night Thursday, sleep all day Friday (I came home to my roommate still in bed after I got back from Chinese. At 2:30 in the afternoon), then stay up all night Friday and repeat this until you crash into Sunday night. And skid painfully into the first few days of the week. Though my roommate seems to have that figured out as well, seeing as she doesn't start class until 3 on Mondays.

I have seen her power walking and almost sprinting across campus because she woke up late to it. And it isn't even that far from our dorms.

But I digress. The interview was so amazingly similar to Academic Decathlon (which I did for some time in high school) that I fell right into my routine. Nod, smile, firm handshake, crack a joke, tell a good anecdote, use the buzzwords, ask the right questions. If I don't get the job, kudos to whoever can beat me out of it. But I'm like 99% certain I won the position, now it's just a matter of my placement. Got back to my room, grabbed my homework, and left them all still snoring away blissfully. My roommate's current boyfriend was supposed to interview at the same time as me, but I guess he missed out. There were a surprising number of people who were absent, which just raises my certainty that I'm hired.


Wrote a paper very quickly before I had to dash off to Moderator Training for the local comic convention. I'm quite proud of that paper, never thought I'd enjoy this humanities class so much, glad I got an awesome professor. He's the one who makes you excited about things you had never really given much thought to. Like how the ancient greeks totally knew the earth was a sphere and the exact radius of the earth. A guy, using basic geometry and a hired walking tape measure, was able to calculate it to within one percent of what we know it as today. How is that not mind bogglingly astounding? My mind was boggled, and this particular paper was about Galileo. Perfect.

Moderator training was a blast. Even though it was my first time, there were several other new people there, and we just sort of dove in. Sort of similar to 'Whose Line is it Anyway', there is a nonsensical point system in place that kind of has rewards. If you wear a nerdy T-shirt, 100 points. Make a reference, 10 points. Make one of the instructors laugh so hard he nearly chokes on his water bottle, 1000 points. I'm gonna win this game so hard, it's gonna hurt. We were regaled of horror stories of troublesome crowds, which were hilarious, troublesome guests (which I am under contract to not gossip about, sadly), and troublesome volunteers. The last one was a little sad; why would you screw up an opportunity like that? Some of the more serous offenders were banned from even visiting the convention. I can't even fathom not going. It's like one of the biggest highlights of my year every year.

And today: homework. Lots of it. It's not so much that I don't do it in a timely fashion, though my procrastination certainly contributes, it's just that my teachers don't assign anything too terribly early, and when they do every single one of them assign at the same time. Can we make a motion so that different subjects are due on different days? Sciences can be due Mondays, humanities on Tuesdays, labs on Wednesdays, etc etc. I think that would definitely help streamline my work load, and I could plan my week accordingly. Plus, the teachers would be able to be stricter on due dates, since it was clear from the first day of school when homework would be turned in. I like this idea, I don't know about anyone else, though.

But so far, that's all I have to report. Another long week, though without anything too major happening, so hopefully it'll be nice and easy to get through. My post-it note to-do list never seems to get shorter, but I'm gonna try and make a dent in it tonight. Wish me luck.

Honestly, how many life skills do these kids not posses? This morning there was a fire drill, because someone couldn't coo food properly. They made cinnamon buns in the lounge kitchen, which went just fine. But they put the used pans back into the oven and forgot to turn it off, incinerating the leftovers and setting off the alarms. It wasn't the first time. Another person burned popcorn a few weeks ago.

Just last week I found an entire egg crate pad for a bed shoved into a washer machine. The lid wouldn't shut at all, and the pad was streaked with blue as though someone had poured soap all over it. Why can nobody do anything without being so helpless? I can see it right in my own bathroom, when I walk in to see these things:

What is this? When you finish the roll, you replace it. Common courtesy.

Okay, I can see you've gotten a new roll, but that isn't replacing it. Seriously, you've already gotten it from the pack, you might as well put it on the holder.

Closer, but I think you may have missed something there.

 Seriously, I'm glad we've managed to stop the elves, but take some responsibility. How hard is it for these kids to grow up? There's a very distinct line in my room between where Ramesh has her stuff strewn and my nearly spotless half. I'm not saying I'm the cleanest person, but at least I have some semblance of organization on my side. It's the same in the bathroom. Meredith and I have signed for next year to share a suite, but I'm going to be in my own room. I can't wait.

Well, I should probably be getting to bed soon, big interview tomorrow. Wish me luck, here's to hoping I get the one opening in the honors college, but if not, I suppose I could CA for the regular kids.

Oh, and I forgot to talk about my little fetish animals from the Christmas trip. Aren't they the coolest things ever? They get to sit up on that shelf and watch me as I try to convince myself it's time to get off the internet and start doing homework. I can feel them judging me.

They stare into my soul, and can see how unproductive I am.

All right, it's been a week since my last post, and what a busy week it's been.

First off, went home this weekend, partially for the Superbowl food and partially to keep adding to my hat inventory. And boy was the Superbowl food delicious. I bet if I learned to make the thing mom made, I'd be the most popular person in the dorms. It was really hard to be productive with my homework and hats when all I wanted to do was keep eating that dip.

Then coming back to school, everything got kicked off into a blur. Last night, we had mock interviews for the position I applied for, and it certainly was helpful. Not only is there an individual interview like what most people think of when they think of an interview, but there's also a group aspect where various interviewees are watched by the employers to see how well you work as both a leader and a member of a group. That's going to be on Saturday, but last night was a little more relaxed. Groups went well enough, thanks to my years of group work in high school classes and clubs. And thank you Academic Decathlon. When I got to my individual practice interview, my mentor was amazed at my answers.

I'm good at the interview game.

She told me that it was going to be perfect, and that if she was hiring, I'd be hired on the spot. That was certainly heartening, seeing as there are going to only be one or two openings in my category, unless I tell them that I'm okay with working in the non-honors dorms. I might do that, just to be on the safe side for the position. Of course, I was feeling good after last night, when my mentor told me that it was almost guaranteed.

Today was free pancake day at IHOP. Tristan and I went off to it, and surprisingly, for an IHOP so close to a college campus it was pretty moderately empty. We got in an out of there in an hour, maybe a little more, with plenty of time to head back to class. Classes were normal, just like every other day, and then later I went to a training for an overnight ambassador position that I may or may not get. It isn't because I won't be qualified, they just have more ambassadors than visitors coming. I met a few of my friends there, and we were talking about the previous night because most if not all the people there were applying to be a CA.

Remember how I mentioned feeling good about my chances. Well, one of my friends, Ian, told me he kept hearing them mention to everyone being interviewed how well they were doing. Well, dammit. If we were all doing great, how are we supposed to compete? Now I'm a little uncertain, but hopefully the nerves are gone by Saturday. Thanks, Ian, for ruining my hopes.

Now I'm just hoping to get through the week and rock the interview. Yay for jobs!

I've discovered that I am the opposite of a typical college student. I'm more productive if I wake up early, I've been eating healthier than at home, and as the week gets closer and closer to laundry day, I dress nicer and nicer. But my reasoning is that I only wear my nice stuff for nice occasions. And so, as I wear my every day clothes, I slowly dwindle down to only my fancy attire to wear. I'm the best dressed person in the laundry room when I finally am down to my last non-smelly article. It certainly garners me a few looks when I haul up the jeans and t-shirts whilst dressed to the nines.

I will never tire of my calculus professor's accent. Today, we were discussing cylinders, but of course he has to say it completely awkward. It comes out as "Cylon"-ders. Now, I think of Lucifer and humanity killing robots. Great. Oh, and he makes it even harder to focus during homework, when he throws in questions like these in between all the normal boring ones:

Bah.

Oh, and I'm really really excited about the next month or so. I've got big plans. Let's hope they work out for the best.

A final thought for the night: why do we have to sleep? Lying prone on a bed for six or seven hours unconscious really puts a damper on my productivity. There aren't enough hours in a day, and then I'm supposed to spend a third of them asleep? What is this absurdity? I mean, I understand that sleep recharges me, that it's the time when your body heals itself, but seriously, it's probably the biggest irritation in my life. More than homework or managing my money to survive the rest of the semester.Sleep is the bane of my existence.

But I should probably get some soon. Good night, I hope to have more to report in the future.

PS: Dinner was fun, Dad, I'm glad we managed to do it at least once this year. :)

The long weekend was lovely, though I didn't get everything that I wanted done. The rest of the week flew past in a blur, and now I'm sitting and waiting for the next one to start. Just a few months ago I was a freshman sitting on my unmade bed and waiting to meet my roommate for the first time. Now, applications for scholarships and programs for next year are littering my browser, and it's all just sort of starting to hit me.

In other news, the application for being a Community Assistant went through, and I have an interview coming up. Cross your fingers and wish me luck. If I can get the position, room and board and food will all be paid for next year, along with the chance to plan all the parties and fun stuff the floors experience. I really really want this job. A friend of mine did it, and was hired for this semester, and said the interview is a cinch. Finally, my Academic Decathlon skills will be useful.

Also, even though I've dropped Satellite Club, I did join the Astronomy Club. Not as much work, and I figured it would be a good stepping stone to a bigger club. And they teach how to do astro-photography, like taking pictures through telescopes. One of their officers is amazing at it, I can't wait to try my hand at it.

And just a little side note, I can't take my calculus professor seriously. Because of his accent, every time he says 'theta' it comes out as 'Satan'. And we have to use theta a lot because we're currently working with vectors. It's getting harder and harder to just not burst out laughing in that class. Not to mention that other people are starting to notice these weird little quirks, and there are small snickers that just make you want to join in. I'm going to burst out one day, and regret nothing.

But other than that, it's just business as usual. Once you think you get caught up another wave of work just rolls through, and you're back to square one. Maybe they should teach Sisyphus more in high school, as preparation for college. Because it becomes a game of how long can you roll your rock to the top before you slide back down the mountain? And so, every sentence I add is just me stalling time before I have to get back to my homework, a russian accent in the back of my mind when I crack open the calculus book and visions of nose hairs when I think about physics. If I can make it through four years of this with my sanity still intact, I think they should give me the degree purely out of principle.

Elves are stealing our toilet paper.

Seriously. We came back from break, and each of us brought at least a four pack. Aly brought two. It has been two weeks, and we ran out two days ago. 16 ROLLS OF PAPER. Somebody has to be stealing them, I know I didn't change the roll that many times, and goodness knows nobody else ever changes it. But to get to our bathroom, they have to go through one of our rooms. How would they ever possibly smuggle it out, but more importantly, why?!?!?! Thankfully Valerie was able to steal some from her brother until we go buy some more, but still. This is getting a little ridiculous. If only we had the space to store a billion pack from Sam's Club.

Also, my crazy calculus professor is so technologically inept I couldn't decide whether I wanted to laugh or cringe. Today he was trying to show us how to use his website (that a friend of his made), and went to try and google it. He started typing in the www part, then went back to the beginning to add the http: and then he couldn't even spell google. Bing helpfully gave him the link, and then he stumbled through the 90s-esque website with the old outdated wallpaper, and silly animated pictures. The entire class was snickering under their breath, but since he is constantly laughing at jokes no one heard him say, he must have thought we were laughing with him for once.

Needless to say, it is entirely too hard to take him seriously. Between the accent, awkward trailing sentences, and completely unrelated tangents, I don't know just how much I'm going to take away from this class, but thank god I have a text book. And I've decided I can't ask questions. Because after listening to him for about a half an hour, I know anything that comes out of my mouth will be tinged with an accent. It just happens. Marathon of Sherlock/Doctor Who/every BBC show ever? My brain switches to Queen's English. It certainly gets interesting.

Anyways, toilet paper. I never would've thought I'd want toilet paper for Christmas, but I should've asked for all of it. And you will never appreciate it until you wake up at three in the morning needing to pee Niagara Falls and discovering that not only was the roll that you could've sworn was full when you went to sleep is now empty, and all the packs are empty and the nearest public restroom is downstairs, in the dark, in 20 degree weather, and has a 90% chance of being locked anyways. When you bundle up, scuffle out in your slippers in sleepy search of an open bathroom while trying not to pee your pants, toilet paper looks more valuable than gold.

But I think shopping is in order for the weekend. A nice, lovely, three day weekend. Plenty of time to do four days worth of homework. Not really, but it feels that way sometimes. But there will always be time for an update. We'll see what the weekend brings. Until next time! <3

Last week, nothing really new to report. Classes are classes, only new thing is my TA for Chinese. I like her. It certainly feels like I'm going to be learning quite a bit more this semester.

In other news, it got COLD. I didn't even wear a jacket for half of December, now I'm wearing sweatshirts and gloves and everything! How I wish for a scarf. Biking stings more than I thought possible. Maybe I should go get a balaclava. Might look like a bank robber, but I'd be so damn warm. Not to mention, it is really, really, really hard to type when most of my fingers refuse to bend more than a hair.

This weekend, though, was the big excitement. I volunteered for the Comicon before, and somehow got on a volunteer mailing list. They kept sending me emails about volunteer meetings, and even though I wasn't technically a volunteer this year, I figured what the heck. So I bundled up, hiked over to the tram, and hopped on for downtown. Talked to a few people, shook some hands, and now I am officially a volunteer once more. But not just any volunteer. I'm a panel moderator.

What that means is that when the famous people, or not so famous but still interesting to meet people, have their discussions and talks that bring people in to see them, I get to stand at a podium up on stage with them, make sure nobody asks silly questions, and ask questions myself if the conversation slows down. I get to talk with them before and after. It's going to be awesome! Not to mention I get a free ticket and food out of it.

The reason I finally decided to volunteer for the convention is because I found out that the summer cap that I want to go to for Chinese doesn't start until after the convention. I had been thinking it was before, so I had been super bummed that I would be missing it this year. Nope! Unfortunately, I may or may not be missing the summer camp this year, since it is mighty expensive.

For eight weeks of super intensive language learning in Indiana, it is $5000. Yikes. The Chinese Department that helps sort these things out says they have scholarships to apply for and to look into other sources of funding, but I don't know how well that will work out. But if I don't wind up going, it won't be the end of the world. I'll just have to adjust my schedule, find a job for the summer, and start saving up. Speaking of which, here's to hoping I get the CA position I applied for. Interviews don't begin for about a month, but I've got a good feeling about it. Between my current CA's saying they always need more engineering ones to the fact that they know me from a lot of community events has me in a positive mood. Cross your fingers, the job will soon be mine (hopefully!).

Other than that, not much to report on this end. Homework is waiting to be done, and though I don't have a lot, there are just those nights where you look at it and just think "....I should sleep." But tonight will be productive, I can promise that much. Just have to make some tea and power through it. I'll have more to write about soon!

And so it begins again. Classes have started, and I've already been to every single one that I will be having (minus labs, of course. Those start next week). So far, I see nothing wrong with the semester ahead. My physics professor is....eccentric, I believe, is the nicest way to put it. But he loves what he teaches and certainly makes the class worth going to. Chinese is the same as always, though this time we're going to be speaking a whole lot more in the class than last semester. Be prepared to be amazed when I can speak a whole new language, give or take a few more classes of it.

Differential equations sounds deceptively hard, but if you have a good understanding above and below your belt, I think it won't be too bad. It also helps that I know a whole mob of people in the hundred plus large lecture. The most amusing thing is that a lot of them picked that particular professor for all the wrong reasons. There is a website called ratemyprofessors. It's an ingenious idea really; students log in, find the professors they took, and score them in various categories such as easiness and communication, as well as comments they feel should be known. Students can look up professors and see who is a good fit for them. I use it all the time.

But there is one more category that can be ranked: the chili pepper. Teachers bestowed with such an honor have been identified as "hot" by their pupils, and very few can claim to have one on their profile. My differential equations professor had one, and it was on fire; it couldn't get any hotter unless it was a burned out crumble on the website. Everyone's schedule revolved around that flaming chili pepper. When we arrived in class, everyone's disappointment was visible. That's not to say she was ugly, I think it was just more their imaginations grew a little wild over the break. But she's good at what she does, and the best part is she said we don't need her textbook. That's $150 I don't have that I don't have to spend. Amazing.

Human event. It was the bane of my existence last semester. I dread Mondays and Wednesdays because of it. I am proud to say that I never missed a single class of it, but that's not to say that I enjoyed it. This semester is different. My human event professor exudes this excitement, this energy that just smothers the room and seeps into you. You can't help but get excited too. He seems not only interested in what he's teaching, but he seems genuinely interested in every single one of his students as people, as equals. He's not there to lecture to us, he's engaging us and our thoughts in the discussion. In my first class with him, he actually knew every single person's name from the roster, and named us all within five minutes, even the new ones he's never seen before. He joked with us when we went around introducing ourselves, commenting on the interesting fact we were supposed to offer to the class. He got me really excited about old dead Greek guys and the math they were doing two thousand years ago. This is going to be a great class, and I'm going to enjoy talking about it on here.

Calculus is certainly an interesting one. I'm in the third level, the last one I have to take. My professor is Russian/Slavic, I couldn't tell exactly. His accent is one of the heaviest I have ever heard. It's not too much of a problem, I can understand accents pretty easily. It's the fact that he was going so slow during the first lecture. I'm hoping it only seemed that way because I learned most of the math that he was teaching during my physics classes, and that once we get into the new stuff my interest will be a little better. Supposedly Calculus III throws in an extra dimension, which is what makes it so hard for people. Bring it on.

Other than that, I don't see a whole lot more to report. It's only been two days, but I figured a nice recap of the classes before I become too involved was necessary. I regret to admit that I will be dropping out of the Satellite club for the time being; I just feel terrible being in it because I can't contribute in any way. I'm going to finish up my math, try and understand the mechanics they use, and go back in hopefully a year or less. I just feel as though I slow them down when they have to stop and try to explain or teach me every part of the project.

In other news, I know some people wanted to know, but I'm not sure who I've told, I finished last semester with a 3.5 GPA. Disappointing, I know, but here's to hoping that this next semester will be better. I know I make this promise every post, but I promise I will write more often (just not every day. That was a ridiculous goal.)