The Squalls

Okay, done venting my rage now.

Transition: my laptop battery died and I had to replace it. I couldn't defer it to my student the way you can for pretty much everything else in the store, so I'm out $95 right before I buy Christmas presents. On the plus side, I get paid tomorrow, whoo.

( The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit )
So, yes, I stink at updating, but let me know if there's anything you want to know.

Edited to add a picture of Ian's Harry Dresden costume (including Bob the Skull) from last year:

The post title is taken from Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel and is in reference to Chapel Hill- the man was right, we have the best springtimes ever. It has been ridiculously pretty here, especially with all the Japanese weeping cherry trees and other blooming plants with names I don't know. Everyone's been laying around on the quad basking in the sun like cats, and the weather is so good that none of them want to be cooped up inside doing assigned reading. And now that I think of it, that hasn't changed either: Wolfe says that the weather "quelled pretty quickly any incipient rash of bookishness." Elyssa, the senior Di, read the extended quote at Di Phi for the last meeting: it's really one of our better traditions.
( Long list and cute pictures )

I cannot believe this semester has finished so quickly when so much great stuff has happened, but I still have another week here.

Real update for once!

Firstly: yesterday I turned twenty. A few people have asked if it feels any different to not be a teenager anymore, and my response has been "it feels like I need to do assigned reading and take a nap, stop asking existential questions." Theoretically this will sink in at some point, but beyond my idle "I like being the largest prime number under twenty" thought, it didn't feel terribly different being nineteen than eighteen. Nineteen was, however, an extremely good year for me overall. Looking back, it seems like both the shortest and longest of my life: it's also one of the few where I can point to changes in myself, which is odd because normally they sneak up on me.

( One Day More )

So, I'm in that that bizarre state where I haven't had enough sleep but I'm really really super awake. Crashing later will stink, but for now I feel like I'm on speed. Thus, briefly updating LJ to avoid finishing some of my homework just yet. Meme swiped from sugared_redhead because it looks interesting. Real update this weekend when I've gotten a reasonable amount of sleep.

Tell me about me meme:

- Describe me in one word... just one single word. Positive or negative.

- Leave your word in a comment before looking at what words others have used.

- Then copy and paste the meme to your journal to find out how people will describe you when limited to one word

So, if my friendslist is any indication, it's about time for an obligatory Christmas post. I'll likely do exams and whatever else springs to mind later because when my entries get all epic I don't write them very often. (After writing: this is massively detailed partly for my own records. By all means skim or skip.)
( Christmas summary )

( Loot list )

Ian's present thus far gets its own section because it's adorable and I'm going to ramble. If you don't want to read this bit, skip it.

( Oh, the cute )

( The following days )

Now I just need to brace for New Year's Eve, which should be reasonably fun. Happy almost end of the year, everyone!

So, interesting story that will be hilarious mostly if you're my mother.
( See? It is good for something )

And now for assorted bits that are interesting even if you aren't Mom.

-End of the semester relaxation feels really good.
-All of my exams are done but I only have my grades back for two classes: B- in symbolic logic and A in English 121 (the second British literature course.)
-Almost all my Christmas shopping is done, thanks to the Bull's Head (campus bookstore) and its excellent sales.
-I did like the December and hanging out with my friends there, but not quite as much as I'd thought because everyone was so stressed. Ian and I ended up eating dinner in a hurry at Franklin Street Pizza and Pasta because he'd promised to let the DJ in at seven, only to learn that Helen had told the DJ not to show up until 7:45 or so. Given that we'd both wanted Pepper's, which takes just long enough that we couldn't do it, learning that we'd had the time was...vexing. After that we had arranged snacks and the DJ did okay music: Ian and I gave up on him ever playing anything in 3/4 time and just waltzed to a few slow-ish songs. There should be pictures up on facebook eventually, but I'm not sure exactly when. Don't get me wrong: I didn't hate the December, but people were stressed enough over finals that people kept fighting in the hallway.
-I sold back some of my textbooks, but I'm keeping the air power stuff and my Norton English anthology, partly because I remember Canney, my high school English teacher, having all of his old ones around and using them to make examples. While I don't see myself teaching, it would be nice to have the old books around for reference.
-The worst exam schedule I saw was Ian's: two on Thursday and two on Friday. The silly boy didn't get any of them moved, so he was incredibly loopy after the last final.
-I still had 20 meals left partway through this week, so I've been feeding anyone who wanted food this week. However, I'm not as crazily oversupplied as Emma, who had 80 in mid-December and had to drag people to the dining hall at every opportunity to get rid of some meals.
-The air power TAs finally gave us back the dialectics (10-page papers that are 30% of our grade) and I got an A on mine. WIN.
-This semester has seemed both incredibly long and really short, and I'm not sure which way to look at it. College time is odd.

Fair warning: I am going to rant in a foaming-at-the-mouth way for a bit. Feel free to skip the cut.

( Rabies-like rage )

/rant

Having waited several hours and had tasty dinner, I feel much more mellow. Mmm, goulash and biscuits.

Anyway, other things that are sort of floating across my mind:

( List of thoughts )
If people want me to clarify or post about anything in particular then poke me, I suppose, but for the moment I'm off to write my English paper. Bleh. However, it's on Yeats, so not bleh. Yeats is the man.

So, at the skepticism of my mother, I decided to write an LJ entry. It asked me if I wanted to restore from saved draft. Puzzled, I clicked yes and found the following:

( Wow, this is old )

People, this is from late January or early February. Do you know what that is? Hilarious. Given that my last entry was New Year's, I have to wonder where the habit of posting at least once a month went.

So, assorted tidbits that you can poke if you want more details.

( I might enjoy some madness for a while )

In the immortal words of people in Di Phi, queries?

Yes, I'm a terrible person who doesn't update her journal regularly enough. Shame on me because I'm lazy. So, here follows a smattering of stuff about my life lately in no particular order. Happy New Year, everyone- don't set yourselves on fire or drown in the punch bowl. I'm just chilling before the yearly family New Year's party, and it occurred to me that posting before the new year might be a good idea.

Hm. It's about five minutes until midnight, so I'm going to go watch the ball drop and so forth and then come edit this.

Okay, back. I shook noisemakers and whatnot and that was fun, but I'm also tired and everyone's being loud, so livejournal rambling to the rescue.

Overall, I've loved my first semester at UNC. Not everything has been perfect, but it's been interesting: I've learned a lot, had fun, and figured out that getting used to college is far from the ordeal that some people make it out to be. That's all for now- maybe I'll write another entry later, but I'm not sure what it would be about.

In my usual end-of-the-month apathetic fashion, I'm going to babble about whatever strikes my fancy.

Possible pictures later depending on whether I want to guard my camera on Franklin Street and whether it likes my laptop. 

gin- *hugstightly*

So, I'm back for my once-monthly (ish) summary of events. Yay for taking a paragraph-at-a-time break from studying for my beastly physics test tomorrow.

For those of you who don't know (because I will post about stuff like Cheerios or bad fantasy and forget big things while being totally lazy at updating in general,) I'm now a freshman at UNC Chapel Hill. It has its ups and downs, but thus far it has been immense fun outside of two of my classes (see below.)

More stuff, possibly with pictures, coming soon, most likely this weekend- I have a good bit of free time since it's Labor Day weekend.

Yes, I'm a lazy bum for not doing an update in forever. However, here's a quick post because I feel weird if I go a month without doing one.
( Woo, beach )
I may update this entry later if anything rapturously cool happens or when I get around to transferring some entertaining quotes. Mom's pulling the "family time" card, so getting down here is tricky if I plan to stay long. See you!

I will eventually get around to talking about choir tour and graduation, but those are long things that require concentration and memory. It's summer, and my attention span has drastically shortened, so instead I'm going to do webcomic recommendations. For anyone on this list who doesn't read them: all the webcomics I read are several (hundred) times better than most of what's in the paper. They're bigger, they have more detail, most of them come in bright colors every day, they have long story arcs that don't fold after two weeks, and they can afford to go outside the cookie-cutter set of jokes and gags that most syndicated strips develop to stay in the papers. For those of you who do: you've likely seen at least some of these before, but I've found several in the past few days that make me laugh like a small deranged toddler with a pound of Sweet Tarts. In roughly the order that I started reading them:
( Long list of webcomics )

If you like even one of these, I'm happy to have put this up.
Most links are to the first comic: I'm a nut for running through the archives to really understand what's going on. If the art sucks, skip to the most recent for a quick glance. Quite a lot of the artists do some quick evolving.
If you have any suggestions of your own, feel free to tell me.

So, by popular (gin and Neko asked) demand, I'm going to write about prom. I'll do the usual list thing so I can organize my thoughts. This is most likely (who am I kidding? is) going to be long and very detailed, so feel free to skip or skim as the mood takes you.
( Senior Prom 2007 )
(Edited to add pictures!)

It's only been a week (ish) since my last entry, but it's been an interesting week.
( Good times )

My birthday was February 23 and now I'm eighteen. I keep poking the corners of my mind to see if I feel any different and can't decide if I do or not. Sometimes I could swear that there's something extra in my head: a measure of calm, perhaps, but in the next moment I'm just seventeen with a few extra days attached. I've had an interesting month, so I'll do my usual list thing.
( Definitely a good month )
If you don't have Gmail or Gtalk, get it now. It's free and awesome and I'd be glad to talk to anyone who lets me know what their name is. My gmail name is sistermaynard (like it is here) and I'm on the computer a lot.

I don't post much, but for some reason I feel strange if I miss a month. It doesn't make any sense, but gin told me to post more anyway. Here's a list of some of the stuff I've done this month.
( January in brief )

Quotes:
Canney: *explaining literary devices to some people who weren't getting it* If I shout "God, why is this happening?," that's an apostrophe. I'm probably not going to get an answer. If God smites me with a thunderbolt, we have a dialog of sorts.

Stephanie and Dr. Milne: *cough at the same time*
Stephanie: Hey, you must have the same kind of cold I do!
Milne: *looks cranky* You want to know why? You students are like rats *arches fingers and grins evilly*. You're all vermin, spreading disease.

Coming soon(ish): recommendations for stuff. Possibly webcomics.

I haven't made an entry in forever, so I though I'd put up a little of what I've done lately.
I'm in We the People, a constitutional theory competition, and we're having a lot of after-school practices that keep us there until 7:30 or 8 because we can't start until 5:30. My group seems to be doing a good job and out presentations are improving, but the state competition is next Friday and we're all on edge. We're the unit that does the philosophical meaning and implication of being a citizen, so finding references to support our musings is tricky. Each group writes three different papers; we read the paper, which can't be longer than four minutes, and then we're cross-examined for whatever time is left out of the total ten minutes. Learning exactly how the Constitution plugs into so many controversial issues is fun, but the practices are wearing me out.
( Other stuff )
Who likes the icon?

I spent Monday morning to Friday afternoon sinking into an incredibly foul mood because of school and lack of sleep, but since Friday night things have been getting better. I had eight tests in two days because my teachers have this tendency to rotate through units at about the same rate; I called for a zombie apocalypse several times, but it wasn't forthcoming. Fortunately, marching band practice has been cut to two days a week (plus games on Fridays,) so I can get some extra sleep and finish my homework sooner. I did some volunteer work at the church fall festival yesterday; it wasn't too hard, but putting cheap plastic toys onto a plastic fish so kids could pretend to fish for the garbage was boring, especially since the same few kids who knew what was going on kept coming back for free prizes.

( Assorted bits of 42 )

( Photobucket info )