Why me?

Ok, this is hopefully one of very very very few downer entries...I'm just feeling a bit lonely, a little homesick, and a lot overburdened.

I spent hours this weekend working on papers and studying and researching...nobody esle seemed to. I haven't seen my room mate since Thursday afternoon. She's practically living with her boyfriend (she comes in during the day to get changes of clothing) and I don't know when or if she's doing her homework. I feel like I'm working 10 times harder than anyone else around me at this whole college thing. Even now, some of the girls next door are supposed to be doing an essay for their freshman seminar class but their study time has somehow degraded into ordering pizza and talking about movies. I don't begrudge them this...more power to them, I say. But why do I end up working so hard?

My mom keeps telling me that if I'm working ten times as hard as everyone esle then I'm learning ten times as much. That's great...I mean, I love learning (yeah, I'm nerdy like that), but I can't help but feel at least a little bit cheated. I mean, you know what you call a guy who gets all C's in med school? Doctor.

Normally this sort of thing doesn't bother me. I'm not a competitive person by any means. I don't really care what the other students are doing with their tuition money. More than anything, I think I feel lied to...by all those grownups that say college is easy and fun and not nearly as hard as high school.

I guess the biggest problem is that I can't do anything to change this. I've thought about it, too. What would it be like if I started acting like my room mate? If I started ignoring homework in favor of "The OC" or went out partying on the weekends? What if I didn't feel any sort of guilt about being late or even skipping class?

Maybe it doesn't even have to be that extreme, I told myself. What if instead of working for 3 hours on editing the rough draft of my paper (ok, side note, the way I write papers if I have to change one thing I might as well re-write the whole stinking paper...which is pretty much what happened) I only glanced over it, fixed the typos, and turned it in. I only need a B average, I told myself, to keep my scholarship.

None of it worked. I'm sure if I really tried, I could cut back on all this work, but I'd still feel crappy about it, to adopt a crude phrase. You guys know me. You probably know me better than anyone else ever will. I'm not normally this discouraged...I rely on my own general sense of optimism to get me through the day (and the hell that is peer review), but it's failing me right now and I don't know how to fix it. I think I'm broken.

Any advice?

Totally geeking out right now!!!

Oh sweet heavenly jehosaphat! I'm still all giddy and stuff...this is ridiculous! But, basically....

I just spent two hours sitting mere yards behind Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews! *swoon!*

This either means I can die happy or it's the apocalypse...

Updates aplenty!

Hello Everyone!

As I posted in my comment reply to Nathan, I am safe and sound back at "home" and I had a wonderful time! I met all sorts of great, energetic, kind people and had some of the best in-depth conversations about comic books I've had in a long time. Now, however, the week has started again and papers, studying, and deadlines are all falling heavily on my shoulders! At least I'm feeling much better (I ran a low-grade fever all weekend...bleck!)

I got up early this morning and hiked all the way to the nearest bookstore (Borders)...it's about a 15 minute walk. Note: This was not a nice 15 minute walk...this was a 15 minute walk in 95 degree heat. But it was worth it. The new book "Anansi Boys" by one of my most favoritest authors ever came out today! I've been waiting for this thing for a couple of years now! I'm so excited...now I just have to find time to sit down and read it!

This leads me to my next point...I have a new book. You're probably not going to hear much from me until this new book is finished. Just so you know. Also, serious gripe...I STILL haven't read the new Harry Potter. I'm rather depressed about that. *sad face*

I hope you all have a lovely week! If you get the chance, go ahead and e-mail me...I love getting e-mails. Also, computer name suggestions still open. I told one of the guys from camp this weekend about the computer naming contest and, during a totally different conversation, about how happy I was that I could go back to my room after the trip and watch "Hitchhiker's Guide"...he suggested the name "Eddie" for my little baby laptop. What do you think? If you have any other suggestions, let me know. I'll compile the results in a little while and make my decision!

Wherein I drop off the face of the planet

Short post here...

I'm about to leave to go to get lunch and go to Art History and all that good stuff, after which I will be heading directly to Lot 59 to meet my bus for the camping trip. Apparently cell phone reception is very spotty up there and of course I won't have access to a computer so I'll be completely out of touch until late Sunday afternoon.

I love you all though. I'll try and write again Sunday evening. Have a wondrous weekend, all!

I really am still here

Ah dear ones,

I am afraid this might be a very uneventful week in terms of posts...I normally count on weekends for time to post big ol' entries to this guy.

However, this weekend I am going to a leadership camp in Prescott. I leave Friday at 4pm and probably won't be back until Sunday evening. I'll try and post then, but no guarantees! I've included a very crummy map to try and give you a sense (in case you're like me and completely unfamiliar with the layout of Arizona) of where I'll be...the giant red arrows and underlines are of my own doing. The bottom one is Tempe and the upper one is Prescott. *note* I just tried this out and I honestly have NO idea of how this works and why it works with this picture but not others...but if you click on the map below, it will take you to a blank page with a BIGGER version of it...ok, that's cool*



That being said, go buy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on DVD. And don't forget your towel. If you do follow my advice, as I advise you to, check out the "Really Deleted Scenes" (like intentional bloopers...they're wonderful!) and...my favorite..."So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" sing-a-long!

Ok, time for a not so informative post

Hello faithful readers! I started today with full intentions to give you a nice long, meaty post about my experiences tuning Sabar drums on Friday...there's all sorts of wonderful information and trivia in that topic, stuff that would do you wonders at a cocktail party or on Jeopardy!, but the truth is that post is not coming. At least not yet.

Let me explain.

I'm planning on going on a camping trip to Prescott, Arizona next weekend. It's run by the Residence Hall Association and, technically, I think it's a leadership camp. Basically, it's a free three-day trip to a place in Arizona I've never been and it will get me off campus for a little while. How could I not take this opportunity?

In order to be able to go next weekend with a clean conscience, however, I realized I needed to take care of the homework I was going to save for next weekend THIS weekend. This translated into me doing two rough drafts instead of one and reading a whole book instead of half a book and many other things.

I spent yesterday researching and writing for English. I had to read 40 pages, right a one-page reading response, write a one-page proposal for my essay, and write a rough draft of my essay (yes, I realize that in an ideal world I'd get the proposal approved BEFORE writing the rough draft, but I'm not exactly living in Utopia here...Utopia wouldn't be nearly this hot).

I also had to fill out the application to go to the camp. There's a couple pages full of essay questions for you.

Today was spent reading The Mahabharata and The Bhagavad Gita in preparation for my essay for that class. The thesis and intro paragraph are due this week and the rough draft is due the very beginning of next week (which would be nigh impossible with me gone all weekend camping!)

In short, I've written about 15 pages of solid text this weekend. I am weary. I am worn down. I am exhausted.

That's why you're not getting the cool Sabar drum post yet.

So there.

I love you all, though, and as soon as I recuperate you will learn about drum tuning, goatskin drum heads, and Senegalese tea.

Also, if anyone feels like it, I'd love to receive some e-mails or letters...it's rather lonely in my dorm right now and I still haven't made any friends. Yes, that WAS a pity plea!

Another short one

I've found what I want to do the rest of my days...this is so brilliant. I wish I'd come up with it...

http://www.dictionaraoke.org/index.html

Karaoke...but with online talking dictionaries. Brilliant, I'm telling you. Please do check it out. The site defines itself as: "Audio clips from online dictionaries sing the hits of yesterday and today. The fun of karaoke meets the word power of the dictionary."

I highly recommend Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll."

As if it weren't cool enough on it's own merits, the site also gives instructions on how to make your own!!!! Sweet!

Sorry, guys...

I promise I'll update soon...it's just that this week is kinda kicking my tushy...

Art History Roundup!

Okay, images have been googled, texts have been referenced, and lecture notes have been reviewed to give you all this: The Art History Roundup! (Trust me, the Roundup will probably become a semi-regular feature here, mostly because art history rocks! I should develop a Roundup logo....hmmm)

Read on, gentle audience, it's good for you!

First off, Commodus, because I promised it to Katie. I wish I had the hand-drawn rendering of Commodus to post here for comparison, but alas it is pinned to my wall at home 3000 miles away. Part of the caption accompanying this statue from the text book ("Art History" by Marilyn Stokstad, in case you were curious...it really is quite wonderful) reads:

...When he proposed to assume the consulship dressed and armed as a gladiator, his associates, including his mistress, arranged to have him strangled in his bath by a wrestling partner. In this portrait, the emperor is shown in the guise of Hercules, adorned with references to the hero's legendary labors: his club, the skin and head of the Nemean Lion, and the golden apples from the garden of Hesperides.

I personally like the look of disdain in his eyes.

Next up, we jump back in time to Ancient Sumer! *Insert Wayne's World noises and wiggling fingers here* These guys are called "votive figures" (really boring name for really cool sculptures!) and Sumerians would commission them and place them in the temple. Essentially, the statues would carry on the prayers of the statue-buyer even when the buyer was not physically in the temple. Check out the eyes on these guys...In Sumer (Iraq), gods were to be approached with eyes wide open in an attentive gesture. The eyes are exaggerated to emphasize the utter piety of the donor. Draws interesting comparisons to Precious Moments figures, I think...sounds like a doctoral thesis if I ever heard one!

Plus, I think this guy (from the far left) is just about the cutest little bugger ever...don't you just wanna hug him? Well, don't you?

Finally, in case you haven't heard yet, I plan on taking my art history class for honors credit. In order to earn that honors credit I have to write a paper or do a research project this semester. It's not finalized yet, but I'm hoping to do a paper on imagery of the Hellmouth in illuminated manuscripts (but they have to be from before 1400...bummer). The paper might also evolve over the semester into a paper on William de Brailes (one of the few manuscript illuminators to sign his work) or a particular image (such as is found in the de Brailes "Book of Hours" or the "Trinity Apocalypse" or even from a wall sculpture at a cathedral in France). To give you an idea of what I'll be researching, here's a very famous image of a Hellmouth from the Winchester Psalter (a psalter being a book containing the Psalms). Things to look for in the picture: 1.The angel locking the door of the Hellmouth 2. the presence of kings (gold crowns) as well as monks (shaved heads) IN the Hellmouth 3. and the cool creatures growing from the hair of the Hellmouth beast.

You'll definitely be kept well up to date with the progress of this paper (mostly because I don't have any friends to share it with here....sad face).

I hope you enjoyed this first (although it's really kind of the second, if you count the Lamassu post back at the beginning of the blog) Art History Roundup! (I need theme music, too). I'm sure there will be many many more as I run across cool stuff to share.

Also, the computer naming contest is NOT over yet! It has hardly yet begun! The suggestions I've gotten so far are pretty great, but I still want more before I make this all-important decision. By the way, you're all invited to the baptism once the name finally is chosen!

And I deliver on my promises

I am officially connected. Hooked up. Set. All sorts of crazy slang. The important thing is that I am now on the Internet (and on the fastest connection I've ever experienced to boot! I love it! I've been watching all kinds of videos because they load immediately. Unlike my last computer, I don't have to wait 45 minutes for a 3-minute video to play! One such video was of a giant Pacific octopus eating a shark. If you honestly think that viewing this video will make you a better person, knock yourself out! The link is
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/octopus/media_players_blue/shark_hi.html)

Now, as for the actual fiasco of getting the computer...

First, you must understand the nature of my new habitat. I live on the south side of campus (south siiide, for all you playas) and letters and postcards come into my mailbox in my residence hall. For some inexplicable reason, however, package pickup is on the north side of campus. A map, demonstrating the distance I must travel to get to the UPS Store for parcel pickup would look something like this:

where the small letter "A" on the left represents my dorm room and the small letter "B" on the right represents the UPS Store.

So, basically, having ordered my computer and having spoken to a very kind man named Kurt regarding the lack of stock of my original computer order and having changed my order to a slightly downgraded model, I then sat kinda patiently waiting for it to come in the mail. And, like magic, it came! I trekked over to the UPS Store after Art History class (foolishly leaving my sherpa at home) and picked up my gi-normous box with computer inside. I then proceeded to carry the computer where? To my dorm room? No, silly, there was a catch! There's always a catch!

The laptop I ordered was supposed to come with all the anti-virus, firewall, system update, etc. stuff I needed to connect to the network already loaded on it (they call this stuff the "imaging"), but Insight was having trouble getting the imaging right so I needed to take my newly-purchased computer to the Residential Life Help Desk to have the techies put all that stuff on it. Ok, pop quiz...what is there always? Correct answer: a catch. The one man who knows how to put imaging on the computer was in a meeting, which I think is actually secret techie code for "having a burger and fries and, maybe, if still hungry and craving a little something sweet, a strawberry milkshake." Those tech guys are tricky, I tell ya!

I left my name and number, expecting a call from burger-boy later that afternoon to set up an appointment for the next day (which would be Thursday, for you nitpickers). He didn't call. He didn't call Thursday, either. For that matter, I still haven't heard from him. So I did what any impatient young girl would do: I did it myself. Are you proud? I have to tell you, I was pretty darn impressed with myself! This is roughly what the scene looked like (dramatic re-enactment):

You can tell that this is merely a dramatic re-enactment for many reasons not the least of which is the fact that I would never be caught DEAD in such dreadful faux fur.

Scan forward to the present and I am comfortably situated with computer, printer, printer paper, and videos of shark-eating octopi. Yup. It's just that good.

As a fun contest AND incentive to commenting, I believe I shall hold a computer naming contest! *trumpets sound* I love this computer and feel the need to give it a name. You can see my computer's picture on the previous post. I have no preference towards whether my computer should be male or female, it just needs a good name. So, if you have any great ideas (or any bad ones), go ahead and put 'em in a comment!