Vacation- finally

So school starts again next week.

I get my grades for the summer school thing that just ended sometime before the middle of march.

And today I picked up most of my lecture notes for the "fall" semester. I still want to call it spring semester, btw.

So yeah, I've been doing school stuff. i'm trying to get my room put together before classes start- this whole no furniture at all thing is starting to get to me- I at least need a bookshelf and somewhere (other than on my bed) to put the computer. And I'm dealing with all the left over and goofed up money stuff. and I'm trying to figure out if I can pay all my bills. And I'm trying to decide if I really need a job. Ok, I lie- i'm trying to talk myself into actually getting the job I know I need.


But untill then (and the hour I have to waste on friday getting my lab sched and stuff) i have all this yummy time off. To cook and clean and get ready to kill myself over classes that at least seem a bit more interesting than statistics. But mostly time to goof off and read lame books and drink soda and look at photos and try to figure out how to get my computer fixed without my usual Wellington shopping spree....

Right right- back to goofing off. I think I'm going to try to die of cholera this time- don't you just love oregon trail?

j.

All done for now

With studying, anyway. Time to switch to "did I pass" obsession mode.

See, I did better than last time. Of course, the only way I could have done worse would be if I hadn't shown up or had forgotten to put my name and number on it, or visibly, obviously coppied of the kid on the other side of the room. Tho sleeping through the exam, in the exam room and drooling on the answer book probably would have worked too....

Tho now that I think about it, I could have drawn some cute stick figure molocule people to take up that blank space on the last question- you know, the one covering the stuff that I never actually made it to because I'm a dumbass.

You know, the kind that burns out studying a week before the exam (damned cramming) and then just stops totally, not actually finishing everything (or anything, for that matter)? yeah, that kinda dumbass. Which is also the kind that's probably got some mad internal bleeding going on thanks to all the ginko I've been popping. It's like speed for broke people who like bloodthinners. Yummy stuff. Smells kinda like a cross between multi-vitamin and urinal cake. Not that I wander around sniffing urinals. That's a bit gross, even for me.

But yes, now I get to almost totally relax for at least, oh, I don't know, a week and a half or so before the school thing starts up again. I think I should get drunk and clean my room. Or something like that.

Ok, off to nap.

j.

about 12 hours left

I have about 12 hours left until my exam. It starts sometime tomorrow not after 9. I need to be reading my chemistry, working problems, drinking jack. I have no jack, no desire to work problems, and the reading is really not going well today.

Correction, the reading of *chemistry* is really not going well today. Not that smutty romance novel reading is going much better. My attention is pretty much shot to hell. If I were a law breaking kinda girl with a couple hundred bucks laying around, I think I might pick now to experiment with speed.

Unfortunately, I'm broke and not big into trips to the ER. So instead I'll try to OD on soda and ginko pills. Haven't killed me yet- tho I might pee myself to death. too bad I'm not a coffee drinking kinda girl. Even if it does just make me shaky.

So.... anyone want to take bets on how I do in this class? I'm feeling a distinct lack of confidance in my ability to BS this exam. even if I do recognise more this time around. Damn my vile procrastinating ways.

Ok, time to fetch the late night study supplies- wordless music, junk food, and more soda.

Oh, yeah, and time to clean out the keyboard too- damned thing gets stuck half the time.

j.

The demon that stalks my days

Somehow, no matter how hard I try, I can't get away from this voice I have in my head. Not a normal "you suck, you should give up and go home" voice, I don't think that would be anywhere near as annoying.

No, this voice comes from the grocery store, the saturday market, the fruit stand on the side of the road. And it whispers to me. Everywhere.

"come to me, j. I have things for you to buy. Yummy tasty soda and chips and another bag of potatoes and some more dried beans"

And I valiantly try to resist. But I can't. I don't know if it's because I have to go in anyway to get my soda fix (I'm so not paying $3 for a 1.5L bottle). Or if it's because it's embarrassing to pay for $5 worth of soda with my credit card (Hey, it's the end of the summer, and my budget kinda died a slow painful death on the way to NY), or if it's just because I'm some kind of creepy hoarder.

I could give you a rundown of what I have, but let's just leave it that, if I wanted to, I could probably feed ten people for at least two or three days. i have like, two or three *kilograms* of lentils- that's at least 30 or 40 pounds! (ok, like5) And veggies, and salad stuff, and a huge vat of honey, and sugar I've only used making bread. And bread making stuff! I think about the only thing I don't have right now (other than refried beans, taco shells, el pato and chipotles in adobo sauce) is baked beans!

totally off topic- the google spell checker hates the words chiplotles and adobo. Of course, it also seems to hate the word google... Ah, nevermind the google thing- just wants it in caps.

Back on topic.

So, in my most recent valiant effort to ignore the sneaky shopping voice, i made a list. A short-ish list. And I avoided the call of the 10$ quart of very nice ice cream. and I ignored the sweet song of the candy aisle (except the 4 pack of cream eggs- which were on my list) and didn't even get any chips.

But I went, in one 15 minute shopping spree, from having easily 5 weeks of food, to closer to 7. And the trip to the asian grocer yesterday totally didn't help- tho I didn't buy the grape pocky like I wanted to. Just so I'd have it. But the tofu for a large family? I'll be having veggie stroganoff for weeks. Ok, maybe 4 days.

Help me, please- make the grocery store stop telling me about all the food I could buy there, then not cook, and throw out. The checkout girls are starting to recognize me!

Hmm.. now some studying, and some reheating of yummy fake enchiladas. With cheese this time, tho.

j.

a year ago today in NZ

I got here at some crazy hour of the morning. The walk from the plane to the customs and immigration people was really really long. I hoped they wouldn't call me on my rather sickly looking self- a week past malaria, I don't think anyone looks their best. but no, I just matched my passport. they let me in, and because I only had about an hour, rather than transfer my bags with the people at the international terminal, I dragged them over to domestic and checked them back in over there.

Quick point- this time last year, I was, I think, as skinny as I've been since I was about 20. I don't think I weighed more than about 120. My stuff? that I was carrying? at least 40 lbs. I looked funny with my half starved crazy skeleton trying to drag my bags through the airport.

So anyway, I got on the neato inter-terminal bus, since there was no way in any kind of hell I was carrying that crap all the way to the other terminal. Got to the domestic terminal, and wow... there is no security.

Ok, so there's security, but, like, no metal detectors, or guys with big angry guns, or taking off shoes, or pat-downs... they just, i think, look for people visibly carrying guns/ bombs/ whatever, and politely ask them not to. But you really don't care about the airport bits, I'm sure, but how about the view? for at least half the flight, you can see both coasts, if the weather is clear. which is really neat. And the airport in palmy is tiny. Bigger than the old Martha's Vineyard one- probably about the size of Laramie. Pretty small.

And then I went to campus. I was stupid, and didn't arrange to get picked up, so I wandered all over campus trying to figure out where i was supposed to go. With my 40 lbs of crap, still recovering system, and 2 full layers of clothes. Eventually got everything taken care of, got into my room at the student hostel/ dorm, and then i think I slept. Or maybe I went into town. i know eventually I did have to get food.

And here today I'm trying to get the rest of my loan stuff sorted out, study my chemistry, get the last of that stuff turned in (late) and make enchiladas that work with stuff I can get here.

And since I'm procrastinating, the recipe will probably follow sometime later today. wow, I need sleep. And beer. And a proxy to take my test for me. Wonder if that's allowed...

j.

one year ago today

One year ago today I was running around San Jose like a mad woman, desperately searching for my passport. You can read about it here, if you like.

Ok, Actually, that's what I was doing earlier in the day a year ago today. A year ago right now today I was sitting in my aisle seat, watching movies, snacking on the (not bad) air NZ food, and hoping the sleeping people next to me didn't need to get up while I was asleep. and wearing the same jeans I've got on now. Guaranteed to make any customs or border official turn you away at the window.

No years ago today, I took a quiz, and barely passed it, hit the half way point on my homework, which should have been in last week, bought yummy stuff at an asian grocer that has, well, just about everything else too, avoided doing my studying (oops) took a nap, bought Indian food I can't afford, plotted world domination (not really) picked up enchilada making stuff, and got accosted by store security while grocery shopping at the countdown. Anyone who knows what I look like might wonder, as I did, what the "ideal" shoplifter in NZ looks like, 'cause I hate getting followed around stores. Maybe if i didn't wear such well ventilated jeans?

and did i mention my nap? but now, it being monday and all, I have to get all the rest of my stuff done. and if you're nice i'll maybe give you a "what I did a year ago today" post again tomorrow- featuring the very long, very spinny corridors of the auckland international terminal, and the really cool non-security at the domestic terminal.

fun fun.

j.

Procrastination annoyances

For anyone out there who, in some mad fit of creativity, decides to write some fan fic (real person or otherwise) or the more manly version- the survivalist story, do me a few simple favors, please?

Ignoring most punctuation issues, and the inability of some people to use the verb "to be", there are some common problems that crop up.

Lack of research. If your character is taking a trip on an airline, and in first class, they don't have to board last, A isn't an aisle seat, and they *don't* actually strip search everyone getting on the plane. If your character is *flying* the plane, their arm falling asleep and causing them to pull the stick left or right will not, generally, turn the plane- not directly, anyway... Might flip it over tho.

If you're writing a Marysue, give your character at least one fault- your female cannot be totally perfect, I don't care if she pops her gum or drools when she sleeps, your male character cannot be rambo, with a pile of guns and cool military-guy toys no sane ATF-type would ever let you keep in one person's name.

And that brings me to realism. i know, bad in these fantasy stories, but.. well... I can only suspend my disbelief so far. So if you've got everyone munching on Doritos in france, and sucking down beer, i'm gonna have a problem with it. And if your rambo dude is carrying 75lbs in brand new boots over 100 miles of untamed mountain, i'm gonna laugh at you. a lot. Like I laugh at people who've obviously never been on a plane but write a story about flying.

Oh, yeah, and if your characters go somewhere interesting, like South East Asia, could they please not get attacked, or use sit down potties? this is back to the research thing, but is also that whole rampant xenophobe thing. Places that aren't where you're from aren't actually a glimpse into hell. heck, they even have electricity and running water in most of them.

Now, for the far more important part.

If you can not actually write, please don't try.

If you have more than one person speaking in a paragraph, I will personally hunt you down and whack you with my flippy ruler. it gets extra swing. Unless you like getting thwacked with a ruler, in which case I will come up with something else. Maybe read very old, very boring translations of very bad books at you.

Their car- the car belonging to them. There car- go that way, car. They're car- they are car? ok, that one's never gonna work.

similarly- you're trouble- you are trouble. your trouble- the trouble belonging to you.

If you aren't sure which of these goes where, please, please, please, just pick one and use it throughout. Please! And learn to use too! it means also! to does not mean also. It's kinda directional. You don't go too the grocery store, and neither do you go to fast. Unless you are actually going somewhere for not eating. I've honestly been reading a story (survivalist- I can only read so much "and then the really hunky actor/ musician/ whatever fell madly in love with my mind and we made out like bunnies" stuff before what's left of my brain melts totally and dribbles out my ears.) where the writer seems to cycle randomly through their/they're/there and you're/your, while somehow never once hitting the right one. no, I don't know how, but let that be a lesson to you about playing the lotto. he has a ~30 or ~50% chance of getting the right one, but by changing around, he's always wrong instead.

where was I? oh, yeah. Please, please, please, don't write unless you can really write. Or at least, if you do, don't put it where anyone else can ever read it.

and, tho this blog is a work of near total fiction (except the procrastination and food stuff, and even some of that), i exclude it from any and all places I goof on all that stuff I just bitched about.

and everyone Does know that capitalization is to be used at the owner's discretion, right?

j.

Organic Chemistry is teh devil

Or maybe procrastination is.

It occurs to me- tho not often, thank bob- that I'd study much better in a place without computer or internet. Like the school library. Except they have computers i could sign into, and people who apparently never learned that library = freaking quiet, already!

And the public library is even worse. They have all the interesting books. Says the girl who used to end up reading the dictionary rather than writing out definitions and sentences for stupid spelling class... But I blame my very very bad handwriting for that one.

So yeah, 7 days worth of study time left, all my assignments should be in, and I'm sitting here, reading SDN, playing free cell, and wondering if I'll actually get a copy of the DVD I want to see that *doesn't* skip next time. Or flipping thru my new art book. Or staring at the wall. Or walking to the store. Or trying to drown myself with a mouthfull of soda. Or looking at the stamps in my passport.

ok, I have much more productive procrastination i could be doing right now- like making sure my student loans are going thru, or figuring out why *I'm* the only one that can't access the Massey web site. Or wiping my hard drive. Again.

j.

Stupid study ideas

So... I've got, like... eight and a half days left before my exam. And about 2 before all of my work has to be in (ok, that's a lie- most of it had to be in *at least* last week). So I thought I'd study while doing something else, to try and keep interested.

Important lesson- studying while "watching" CSI, good. studying while watching scrubs, bad.

Also, when you're expecting something interesting in the mail (like a spiffy art book from the states), *Don't*, for the love of bob, check the mail before you get anything done. You will play with your cool new toy for hours. Or at least an hour. Sorry- short attention span.

And trying to study while hungry is probably a bad idea too.

So the combination of all those bad ideas means I've done 6 problems (of the super quick variety) in about 2 and a half hours. Not to be too obvious, or anything, but I somehow don't think that pace is going to work.

So I'm going to finish this section (hopefully in less than 5 hours) and reward myself with lunch and the rest of this episode of scrubs. Or maybe the transporter. Yeah, that sounds like a good (bad) idea.

j.

computer fun

Turns out that my computer is the only one I know of that's not loading the massey web site. So unless it's a problem with my ISP, I figured, you fix everything with a system restore.

So I'm spending part of today getting back my minimum requirements to run my computer. And part of the day putting my bookmarks back. And part of the day studying, weather I like it or not.

But I won't be spending any time at all doing those stupid online quiz's I need to get done, because the school's all closed up for something called "waitangi day" (something about a treaty the Brittish, I guess, kinda actually stuck to with the natives), I got no other computer access. Yay.

So, maybe some actual studying will get done.

Or maybe I'll do some more laundry, make some tacos, and watch boondock saints, scrubs and transporter 2 until my brains flow out my ears. Oh wait....

Yeah... And I gotta get those east asian languages loaded into my computer again. This whole "??????/???" thing is just not gonna work.

oh- and for those of you keeping track, since the last time I said "I really need to study, I think I'll go do that now" or some variation on that, I have done... no studying. Gee, I feel stupid.

j.

Nightmare!

And this has nothing with drunk BT calling at 3am.

The Massey site seems to be down. All of it. For 2 or 3 or 4 days now. plus tomorrow.. and knowing them, monday too. 2 weeks before my summer school exam. When I need to be able to check stuff and ask questions and stuff.

And finish all those stupid quiz's!

Yargh! this is so what I get for leaving things to the last possible minute.

Urgh.

j.