Monday, September 28, 2009

Those Who Expect

So I think tomorrow I will take the bus to the mall again. The month is nearly over, and I need more yarn (It's like I have some sort of addiction) and I really want to buy a videogame. But at the same time, I am going home this weekend. I'll be more than able to last another week without some yarn, and I can buy that same videogame at home. But it'll be more convenient at home, because I can drive myself there and not have to wait an hour for the bus to come back. It would be really nice to have the game for the plane trips I will be taking... But then, this is also why I bought that Sony Reader (which I use daily)... I guess I'll decide after my math class tomorrow. I might end up wanting to curl up in my room for a bit, or I might make plans with someone. We'll see.

Ugh. Ubiquity. I don't feel like talking to you tonight. So I think I'll just stop hereOH MY GOD I just realized I left my Pokemon game at home. That's a shame; I really wanted to play that tonight before bed. I guess I'll just have to read, or something, instead.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Stand So

I don't know if you remember, but a few posts back I wondered if there'd be anyone interested in turning Ubiquity into a book. Well! No such thing has happened, but I noticed this Blogger Buzz post. So of course I looked into it, mostly to see how much it would cost me to print Ubiquity (it would certainly be a fun novelty).

$85.65 for a soft cover, $95.65 for a hardcover. This is much more than the usual $20. I can also get it in digital format for $7.95, but what's the point in that? It seems there would also be 19 pages of Table of Contents, which I think it pretty bad-ass. I don't think I'll actually turn Ubiquity into a printed book... But maybe I'll consider printing one book for every year sometime in the future.

Oh, and it seems it won't print any images associated with my posts, which upsets me a bit.

Ahh, yes... Only $52.25 for a hardcover of all of 2008... Yeah, no, that's still a lot of money. Maybe if I get a job, or something, I'll reconsider. (Thank God I've at least spell-checked every post.)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Parity Addition

So grandma is doing alright after her surgery. Dad sent me a quick text about it, and then his phone died, so I don't know much about it. This first night is going to be the worst for her... And then hopefully things will start getting better. I'm hoping the best for her.

There must have been some sort of culture presentation today, because some Native Americans erected a tepee and started dancing on a stage on the main drag on campus. It was pretty cool; I've always liked the way they dress and dance. Their songs are a bit too harsh for me, but I can't argue with a strong beat. At the end, the guy with the most awesome outfit started rapping about Jesus and goodwill. It actually made me a little sad... I've never much appreciated colonialization.

Umm... Some other things happened, but it's all school related stuff and I don't care so much about it anymore. This seems to be a pretty shitty Friday. Everyone I know is having problems of some sort today. I guess I should be happy that it's over now, and it is Saturday.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Imagination Determination

So dad came and bought me lots of food, hooray. He then gave me and Kyla a nice dinner, and it turned out to be a pretty nice evening. He only stayed for an hour or two, and then he went back to Great Falls to be with grandma.

Oh, and he also bought me a TV. So I guess it doesn't matter whether or not a PS3 will connect to my roomie's TV. And I guess it is nice to have a TV with a screen that is bigger than my laptop. I was wondering how I'd play multiplayer games on it. But what I'm really excited about is the fact that we have the remote for this TV, so I can do things like easily change channels or manipulate the volume. I can also buy this magic wand, now. And I think I will. I even reserved one, just in case.

And I'm living in a college town, so I should be able to find plenty of odd jobs I can do until I have the money to buy one. (I really want that magic wand.)

Man, I am five seconds away from doing my hair like Hermione, putting on wizard robes, and tapping the TV with a stick until it turns on. I mean, how cool would that be? And then maybe double-tap to put it into video mode. Oh my God, all of the possible scenarios are playing in my head right now. It would be so cool. I could just twirl it and the volume would go up! Jab at it to mute! Oh my God, I could get a remote for my PS2, and then program the wand to work with it as well. Tap the TV, it turns on. Double tap, video mode. Swish, and the PS2 turns on! It's like magic!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

When While What

Dad is coming to visit tomorrow. He is bringing me and whoever I want to take with me to dinner, and then he will be taking me shopping for food. I am excited... I do miss my dad. Sadly, he is here for some more serious business. Grandma has breast cancer, and she is going through surgery for it on Friday. It was supposed to be sooner, but they pushed it back a few days. Dad is here because she is his mother, and his last living parent. Grandma is 86 and isn't very strong, so we can only hope for the best this Friday.

Unfortunately, this also means that I am at a higher risk for breast cancer, which really sucks.

I need some rubber bands. I can't find any at the book store, which is ridiculous. I've got all these things flying around willy nilly because there aren't any rubber bands on campus. I can't very well staple 46 index cards together, and it's not like tying them together with yarn is effective. I never thought I'd get so frustrated over something as simple as rubber bands. If I can't fix this problem soon, I may have to stage a protest. Bring us rubber bands at the student store, or I swear to God I am picketing out front of it.

Some kid cut his finger and called an ambulance for it. One ambulance, two police cars, and a fire truck ended up outside the dorms, making a hideous noise. The kid doesn't even live here. It was possibly the most annoying thing to have happened this month. I'll bet everybody hates that guy now. I certainly do.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Independent Bottlers

I can't tell if writing Ubiquity like this every day to almost no readers is really pretentious, down to earth, or just plain stupid. I might as well be writing in a private paper journal, or be saving all the entries in my hard drive. There is pretty much no reason to put this online. And yet I do. And I know that anybody at all could come along and read it. And sometimes I write things that I don't really want other people to see, but with absolute knowledge that all the world has access to it. I have never gone back and deleted an entry that I was ashamed of, and I have never failed to post an entry I've written. Did you know that there are over 200 posts? And at the rate I update, I'll probably reach 300 before the end of the year. And I'll probably still be writing entries this time next year.

Just felt like sayin'.

I really can't wait until I go home in a couple weeks. If only because there are a few key things I really want to bring back with me. The two most important things are my ukulele and my PS2. Along with all of the PS2 games that are in the house. And some clothes. I pretty much plan to stuff my duffel bag to the brim with clothes and video games. It's gonna be fantastic.

Mum mentioned that she might get me a PS3 for my birthday. We talked about how the price went down (she brought it up, I was amazed), so it seems like a good time to buy one. She then talked about how useful it would be in college, since it can play DVDs as well. But it was only just now that I thought to look for an HDMI input thinger on the TV in here. It does not have one. I feel a little sad now.

I should probably call mum and tell her about this. For all I know, she's already ordered me one. She works fast like that.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Master Chef

So last night I went to a dance the all-boys dorm was holding. A lot of people showed up, and they had it outside so it wouldn't get too hot. It was pretty fun overall, but I can't swing dance. Every time they played a country song I either got stuck awkwardly raving solo by the bushes, or stomping on some poor guy's toes after he refused to believe I had no idea what was going on. At least they played some techno, and even a little bit of disco. I can dance to that. And I was able to fake my way through the hip hop.

I got to see a guy in a cowboy hat teach a guy with a backwards cap how to hoedown. I'm pretty sure that's the reason why I came to Montana.

I'm meeting people and it is lovely. I got to meet a buncha people at Anime Friday. After the anime, eight of us went to go play sardines. It took us one hour to play only one round, apparently our hidng spot was really good. This one girl stood five feet away, looked right at us for a few minutes, and then left. She seriously could not see us. Maybe somebody casted an ivisibility spell?

I also met a few people at the dance. Or, more accurately, I hung with Kayla who hung with a group of people that were going to the dance, all of which I met. Afterwards we went to the park to go star tripping. I had never heard of it before, but it is pretty fun. What you do is go out at night, look up into a starry sky, pick one star to look at, and then spin around a bunch looking at that same star. Then, once you've gotten a bit dizzy, somebody flashes a flashlight in your eyes. You then have no choice but to fall down. It's so disorienting, and I haven't figured out why the flashlight makes you fall down. But it's also fun to watch people spin around like idiots, and then just crumple.

A lighting storm started when we were in the park. At first you could only kinda see the lighting, but not hear it. Then, maybe an hour later, the thunder came at almost exactly the same time as the lighting. We were running for our lives through the rain. Then, all today, it has been extremely windy and a little chilly. It's a nice change from the obscene heat we've been getting. Almost feels like it might be September, and not July.

All in all I had a pretty good weekend. I decided to spend all of this Sunday just chilling in my room, though. I always need a day to recover after I go out dancing. I didn't get any of my homework done, but I did catch up on my television shows. Priorities.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Things I Said

Alright! I rode the bus! Woo, what an experience. It was actually unbearably hot today, though, so it wasn't that good of an experience. But I did get to go to the craft store, and I picked up enough yarn to keep me occupied until the end of the month. And then I had an orange julius, and it was nice to have something to drink that wasn't really crappy water.

Speaking of water, the water here is so terrible. It's really harsh on my skin--Not only am I breaking out all over the place, but this spot on my forehead looks like it's so irritated it might break out into a rash. I've been doing what I can to sooth it these past couple weeks, but lack of access to a drug store means all I can do is think good thoughts.

Speaking of drug stores, I really need to go to one. I have maybe one shower left of body wash, and then I'm all out. There are also a few other toiletry type things I need to get, and I need to find a pharmacy. I guess that will be my task for this Saturday.

Speaking of tasks, I need to call a taxi service and schedule a ride to the airport. From the 1st to the 4th I will be at home. But in order to get there, I need to take a plane. And to get to the plane, I need to take a taxi. (And to get to the taxi I'll need a front door, and to get to the front door I'll need to pull the blankets off my legs.) So I will call the only taxi service in the Bozeman that goes to the airport area and get a ride. I can't wait to go home. I've already told a bunch of my friends, and I'm planning to meet up with the few that still live there. It will be so nice to have the bathroom all to myself.

Speaking of... Wait, no, there's nothing. But anime club meets up tomorrow, and I'm a little excited. Japan club met yesterday, but that failed miserably, so I'm hoping anime club will pull through. And then our floor is having a meeting about where we are going to duct tape our RA. I had a dream last night about it, but it was a lot more nightmarey and a lot less dreamy. I hope we come up with something awesome.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Follow Instructions

So I'm kinda sick of being stuck on campus. Even though I have a bike, I have no honest clue about bike laws for this area, so I'd prefer to leave it behind when I go places. But digging around in my backpack today, I noticed I had a bus schedule.

Dah-dahdah-dahhh!

The buses here are really funky looking but you don't have to pay to ride them. They all stop at the bookstore on campus, and most of them head to the mall. There is a craft store at the mall. I will be riding the bus to the craft store all the time now. Right now, though, my problem is that I've never taken the bus by myself before. It seems pretty simple, though, and I'll probably get it figured out before long.

My last class tomorrow is at two, so I think I will try out the buses not long after that.

So my roommate is sick. She caught it from her friend. She thinks it might be strep throat. Today I come in, not long after washing my sheets, to find the both of them sleeping on my bed. Now I'm worried that I'll wake up and be all sick, too. The rest of the day really only went downhill from there. I think I'll go shower and wash off the disappointment that turned out to be today (and also wash off the emo-ness that went into making that sentence).

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Assistance Distance

So every time I go to shave my legs, I notice this white scar on my knee. It isn't really noticeable or anything; it practically disappears when I stand up. I only really notice it when my knee is completely bent and my skin color is evened out from the hot shower water. A thin white scar, maybe two centimeters long, and for years I couldn't remember where the Hell it came from.

Seriously, it was a huge mystery. Because of it's size and intensity I always thought it was recent, maybe in the past five years or so. It's shaped liked all the other thin scars on my body, just maybe a little fatter, like a plumped worm. So its shape gave no clue as to where it came from. It looks like a cut, and it's kinda on the side, so there's no way it's one of the many scrapes I've had on my knee.

Then earlier today I remembered exactly where it came from. I can't believe I never connected my scar to that incident before. It's like the scar didn't show up for fifteen years or something.

See, my family was hanging out with Craig's family, and I was too young to be literate. This was during the time period that I decided that I wanted to live in my brother's room (while my brother was still there... I got bottom bunk). We were all at the beach. It was obviously a NorthWest beach, because of all the logs and because of the conifer trees. There was one log that we for some reason decided was a slide. Billy slid down it, Christina slid down it, Craig slid down it, and everyone had a great time with no trouble at all. I wanted to slide down it, too, even though I was "too little."

I couldn't get going like everyone else did. I'd scootch a little bit, but I wouldn't slide. I scootched a little more, and suddenly started screaming and crying and bleeding all over the place because there was this huge splinter sticking out of my knee. Mum and dad scooped me up, everyone got packed into the car, and our beach day was over. I remember taking a bath that night with Billy (because Billy was also too young to be literate), and mum pointed out that the splinter would need to come out soon as she shampoo'd my hair (I was also too young to wash myself). I looked down at my knee, which I was carefully keeping out of the water. It was dark blue and light green, and angry red where the peice of wood stuck out. It was a really big splinter. I said "No, it'll be fine."

Later that night, I was sitting on the bottom bunk of my brother's bed, and my dad had a pair of tweezers. He was going to pull splintzilla out of my knee. He gave it one tug, and I screamed as loud as I possibly could, crying all the way. Every time he'd give a little tug, I'd shreik. I don't remember it actually hurting, though, I just really didn't want to deal with it being pulled out of my knee. He got it out, and said that there might still be little splinters left in there. I cried and begged him not to do anythign about it, and he obliged. He put disinfectant on the wound, applied a bandage, and held me for a bit while I sniffled and sobbed. Then I went to bed.

Mystery of the scar: Solved.

I got hurt a lot in that time period of my life. That summer was particularly brutal. I think it was just because I was old enough to walk and talk, but not yet the master of my motor skills. But I also think there may have been something wrong with me, because I have very vivid memories of getting hurt and not feeling any pain. I essentially ripped all the skin off the front of my leg (with no scars, I might add) and I remember thinking, very clearly "It doesn't hurt, and I can't let anyone know about it." I tried to hide while my leg bled all over the place. What gave me the way was this uncontrollable urge to cry. I even tried not to cry, but it was a losing struggle. That same summer I sliced my thumb open with a metal knife. I didn't actually know I cut myself, but I had a feeling that I did. So I told myself that I was okay, took a deep breath, and looked at my hand. I remember the way the blood spiderwebbed across my hand made it hard for me to figure out where I had cut myself. I also had to taste the red stuff, because I thought it might have been ketchup. I didn't start crying until I confirmed I was actually hurt, and dad cleaned me up, put a bandage on it, and held me while I sniffled and sobbed. Then I ate dinner.

Nothing from back then left scars the way that splinter had, so it's really no wonder I had trouble connecting the scar to the splinter. But now I'm wondering if my pain receptors developed incorrectly, as it is a well-known fact that I have a high tolerance for pain.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Road Conditions

Man, I am always smelling burning hair around me. Do I smell like burning hair, or is that just the way college smells? I don't think it's me, because right now I smell like oranges, but I still smell burning hair. Why, of all things, does it have to be burning hair?

The wall between mine and my neighbor's room is really thin. I can hear everything she says as if there was only a curtain between us. Apparently most rooms don't have a wall as thin as this. It's bothersome when she plays her music or watches TV. But when I can hear her talking it's like a soap opera. Earlier today she had a fight with her mom over the phone. Last week she had a fight with her boyfriend over the phone, cried for a few hours, then he came over and they fought and cried a lot. A few hours ago she threatened suicide, and right now she is having a jolly conversation on the phone. It's really very interesting, and I hope she can manage to keep this level of energy for the rest of the semester.

Um, what else was I going to say... There was a fire drill today in the dorms. I was eating dinner, so I didn't go outside and assemble. But it was funny; you could tell it was going to happen even though they are supposed to be a surprise. There were signs suddenly posted all over about what to do and where to evacuate to, and the dorm next to ours had a fire drill about an hour before we did. Which I guess was our biggest warning.

Alright then. I am going to finish off this bag of chips and read books. Goodnight, Ubiquity.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

OH SHI

Look at what I made. Look look look.

Have you looked yet? Go take a look. Because it took me all day to make it, and it wasn't nearly as easy as to should have been. I had everything sketched out in Devilshop Elements

Woah, major distraction. Out of nowhere I stood up to go buy icecream. And I did.

Anyways, I drew it in Devilshop, only to realize that it had no pen tool. How am I supposed to make comics with no pen tool? It's not like I can use a real pen. That would ruin my screen. So I downloaded Gimp, because I used it once and hated it, but it has some really devoted followers. I hated it this second time, but at least it had a pen tool. And once I figured out some of its quirks (The tool tray is a seperate window? Really?) I was able to at least ink everything. But then I realized I wasn't able to select and move parts of an image around, and I started throwing things. I shattered a really good pen against the brick wall, but thankfully I cleaned it up before the ink started leaking everywhere. I moved the image back into Devilshop, and got everything finished without too much problem after that. But I'm still angry about it.

Fucking... Gimp. Motherfucker. That's all I can say to describe my experience with it.

I wish I could say I did more with my day, but I didn't. There was even a big football game, but I didn't go for some reason. I avoided my homework pretty nicely, though. That'll come back to bite me in the butt during my first exam. Which will be on... MONDAY FUCK. I haven't started two of the books yet!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Enculturation

Being a college student, I have to read a lot. Being an avid reader, I read a lot anyways. Add to this the fact that I love working with yarn, and you end up with me spending a lot of time being very quiet. Today I decided to couple these activities, reading and knitting, in an attempt to multitask two things that take up huge amounts of time.

Knitting with my Sony Reader is quite possibly one of the best experiences out there. I prop the Reader up on my laptop, using the grooves between keys to hold it open and the screen to prop it up (best thing this Mac has ever done). I just press a button to turn the pages, and there is pretty minimal fuss.

But knitting while reading a real book is an entirely different matter. And is also a problem I need to solve soon, because all of my school books are real books. I have to use weights of some sort to hold the book open, and even then the new books constantly resist the weights. Then I either have to hunch over and strain my back to read, or prop the book against something. Propping the book causes all of the weights to fall off, so it's not a feasible idea.

I have designed a little metal device that will likely hold my books open without too much problem, but I need some thick wire to do it. I think an old coat hanger would work best, but I'll settle for anything so long as it can resist being bent by the book. Even a really really long paperclip or the spiral from a spiral notebook would be good enough. And once I have this made, I have some cardboard I can cut up to fashion a little thing to prop up my books. Turning pages will still be an issue, but I'll be willing to overlook it so long as I can actually read the book in the first place.

I'm motherfucking MacGyver over here! All in the name of reading while knitting.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Reading Dough

I just ate an icecream and it put me in a great mood. Just letting you know.

... Somebody should make iceream bars that are just pure vanilla on a stick.

Okay! So there is a serious problem with having the school book store so close to where I live. It is not only a book store, but it sells textbooks (that I want but don't need), and it is a stationary store. Stationary is possibly my biggest weakness. I love pens and pencils. And erasers. And scissors. And paper. Oh my God I love paper. Lined paper, blank paper, thick paper, thin paper. Paper with spirals down the side or along the top, perforated or pre-cut. I love it when highlighters come with two colors, or this one nifty highlighter I have that is also a pen and a little tab-note dispenser thinger. Most of my impulse buys happen when I am in the stationary section of a store, and I usually make a point to avoid it.

But I needed to go to the store and buy a folder. I told myself, "Just one folder. Just the one that is required." When I got close I was all "Maybe two folders. Because that one class has a lot of loose papers." I got there and found a rack with a big sign that said "FOLDERS" and I picked out an ugly red one and an ugly blue one. I was telling myself that I did good, that I just needed to go check out now, but then I turned around.

AN AISLE COMPLETELY FULL OF PENCILS AND PENS.

I spent like 20 minutes not doing anything except looking through them all. They sold my favorite type of pen (which is actually kinda rare), as well as many of my favorite types of pencils. They also sold the best seleciton of pencil lead I have ever seen. I thought I was gonna piss myself when I got to the aisle full of erasers. I bought a black eraser just because I've always wanted one. And then I bought a matching white one because I needed the set. I nearly bought out all of the erasers just because I had never seen such a great selection before, but I held off. There was also a lot of paper. I was actually overwhelmed. It wasn't as pretty as the paper being sold at Kinokuniya's, but the selection was still very vast. I bought a spiral notebook with the spiral on the top because it reminded me of RaeLynn.

Look at me, talking about stationary. This is such a boring topic (that I find completely fascinating). I'll just end this by saying that the damage today was minimal, and I can mostly justify everything I bought. But I may be broke by the end of the schoolyear because I bought all of their colored staples, or because I needed one of every type of lead they sold, including pencils that can hold them.

EDIT: Oh God I just looked through all of my pens and pencils and decided that I need more pens. That I don't have a fine enough selection of pens. I need blue pens, and more red pens, and some different types of black pens, apparently. And while I'm at it I could probably use more pencils. And I need a really really good pencil sharpener, because I lost my lovely metal one last year. Oh God it's a slippery slope...

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Trans-Anthem

Apparently Wednesday is laundry day for everybody! But I did mine first thing in the morning (before I eve ate) so I got it all done before the rush. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was the cause of the rush, since I was using all three working machines. But that is only a minor problem.

Today, in my Anthropology class, the girl sitting next to me had a seizure. According to Amber, it should have been more traumatizing to me, since she was seizing all over me, but I pretty much just didn't care and ate lunch afterward. What happened was she slumped onto my shoulder, and I thought she was sleeping. When she didn't respond to me, the girl sitting in front of us turned around and said that she was having a seizure (it turns out the girl in front was a nursing major). It was about then that I noticed that her eyes were open and darting around, and she was quivering a bit. She continues seizing for a minute or two. Teacher ran over to attend to things, and eventually announced that class might as well be over for today. I took off right away, because I was hungry for lunch. In hindsight, I probably should have stayed to find out if she was okay and whatnot.

I feel like I did something else of interest today, but now it's starting to seem like I didn't. I think I just holed up in my room and missed dinner... No wait!

Freshman Convocation was today. I didn't go, because the guest speaker was Lopez whatshisface who wrote the book The Soloist. I read that book over the summer (a few days before I moved) and I hated it. I hated the writer. If I had gone to convocation I'd have certainly stood up and started shouting things. There's nothing I hate more than a piss poor book, except maybe the person that wrote it in the first place. I especially hate it when these god awful books get turned into movies.

Oh my God I am about to go on a twelve hour rant about horrible books and how I hate them. I think I should just go lie down and read good books and not think about terrible things like this. I just get so steamed.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Ditty

I keep missing update times because I keep being away from my computer during update times. I might change the Ubiquity update schedule to be in the mornings after I wake up, instead of at night before I sleep. But then I might end up making a buncha posts about how tired I am, or about my dreams. That would be boring.

Or, at least, more boring than recounting the actions of my days.

Oh my Gosh, it is Tuesday! That means that tomorrow is (dun dun dunnn) laundry day! I don't have classes in the morning on Wednesday, so I do my laundry when everyone else is out. It is nice to have that time to myself. Even if it is really hot and uncomfortable in the laundry room.

So I'm getting into the habit of doing my homework way ahead of time. Which is great, because then it's all out of the way, but then I get a lot of "I can't hang out right now, I have all this work to do" in the evenings when I'm bored. Oh Well. At least I'm completely free for when somebody else wants to hang out. And at least I don't have to worry so much about my grades going down the tubes. Unless I'm doing all of my work wrong, which is another story entirely.

Argh, I should probably go take a shower. I get so anxious about showering. If I get an apartment, it won't be for the internet, it'll be for the private shower. It just freaks me out so bad because sometimes guys (usually drunk or high) will walk into our bathroom to use the urinals (why do we have urinals in a ladies room?), and then there is no way to hide because the urinals afford a direct view into the showers. Also, it is that time of the month for me, and that is embarassing.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Precedented Disturbance

So I've been making friends and getting to know people. Life is a lot better knowing I can at least ask someone if they want to eat dinner with me. As opposed to just shamefully walking to the cafeteria all shy-like. Bingo night led to me getting into the anime/geek clique, which is exactly what I wanted. Movie night just meant that I had another reason to stay out until 2 AM. It's all good.

My roommate didn't come home Friday or Saturday night. It was kinda odd to wake up and realize I was still alone. She showed up in the afternoons, though, to change clothes and take showers and stuff. But she was pretty much gone all the time. Talking with a few other people, I've realized how strange my relationship with my roomie is. We aren't friends, and we barely even talk. We've never had a meal together, but it's not like she's here often enough to ask. But it's not like we don't get along; we have no qualms living in the same little space. My RA was in this situation once. She said it was really surreal. She was really happy when partway through the year her roomie left, and she got to live with someone she could actually get to know.

Roomie decided to go camping, and won't be back until tomorrow. So I guess I'm alone again tonight, as per the usual.

I've got nothing planned for tonight, so I think I'll just stay in and watch TV while I knit. I desperately need things to do while I knit. I keep sucking up all of my internet allowance streaming videos. And the project I'm working on is actually knitting, and not crocheting; I'm really slow when it comes to knitting. And then I think I'll clean tomorrow. It's ungodly just how much dust has accumulated this week. Even my computer mouse is dusty.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Shower

So I finally got the chance to use Skype in my dorm. Mum called, and we did a video chat for a while. It really ate up my internet usage, but nothing I can't handle if I just avoid watching videos that day. We didn't just voice for very long, so I don't know how much internet that takes up. We pretty much went into video right away. It was nice seeing the cats, and watching them freak out when I called their names. Dad and Bill showed up, too, and we had a lovely family chat. Everyone was in a good mood.

I'm feeling not so lonely today, but it might be because I've been able to actually talk to people. Friends have been signing online, there have been good free discussion moments in class, and my roomie and I even had a good chat earlier. I still don;t have anything to do, though.

I had a bit of homework leftover from my math class today. We were looking at cryptography, and we broke up into our groups to break some codes. It was really neat, and I actually love code breaking. We never finished the last really tough one in class, so I worked on it here. I got all but two letters decoded, so...

So I just had an epiphany and solved the last 2% of the code. Man, I feel really awesome. I don't know if I should e-mail the rest of my group, or if I should just wait until I see them again Tuesday. I guess it doesn't really matter, since we have to turn them all in at the same time. I finally really looked at the syllabus for this class, and I'm pretty excited now. Not only do we watch a ton of moves (Flatland, Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land, Code Breakers, and more), but we're looking at a lot of mathy type topics that I'm really interested in. Maybe I'm a mathematician at heart. A mathematician that hates equations.

I just remembered that Monday is labor day, and I'll have no classes. It'll be a three-day weekend, and I'll have nothing to do. FML, I usually love three-day weekends.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Case

Well, the votes are in and I've realized that I am feeling incredibly homesick. The only other time that I've been homesick was at summer camp, and even then I was comforted by the knowledge that it'd all be over by the end of the week and I could go home. That isn't the case so much this time. It could just be that I'm feeling depressed over the fact that I'm having trouble making friends. But then, who's to say that I'm actually having trouble? I've been here a week, and there have only been three days of classes so far. Barely enough time to introduce myself to a few people.

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm eating all of my meals alone that's getting to me. I never minded eating alone at home, but then at home there was always the option to include someone if I wanted to. Maybe it's the stress of sharing a public bathroom. Taking a squat on the pot has become a group activity, and I don't like how open and public the showers are. Or maybe I'm just jealous that my roommate is always out and about with her friends, and there is nothing for me to do outside this room. Sure, it's nice to be mostly alone when I'm in my room, but when we're both in here it's deathly quiet. We get along just fine (No problems living together at all so far), we just don't seem to be able to hold a conversation.

I wish my classes would get under way so that I'd have something to do. I wish I could find a friend in at least one of my classes that I could hang with. My last class tomorrow gets out at two, and I probably won't have homework. I'll likely just go back to my dorm, maybe get something to eat, and then wait around until the next day. And then Friday I'll just go to class, eat alone, and wait in my dorm until Monday comes around. Maybe Saturday I'll go spend a day at the museum, or something.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Clackers

I'm doing my laundry right now. I didn't think about it until I remembered that I'm wearing my last shirt today. I've decided to do just one load, so that I won't be up all night waiting for the dryer to finish drying my jeans, or something. So just one load of colored shirts. And I'm all paranoid that someone will go in there and take my clothes out, because my shirt with the giant metal buttons on it is making a loud clacking noise as it makes its tumbles. I can hear it from all the way down the hall.

... Oh God I'm so worried I'll get into trouble over this. I should have washed my clothes earlier in the day, when it is less likely people will be sleeping. At least most people have their doors shut right now.

Eeeep...

I keep finding dead and roasted bugs on my desk. They will fly into my desk lamp and burn themselves alive, and not fall out until later in the day. It's really gross, and kinda disturbing. But at the same time, I can imagine that I have an effective bug killing device in my room. Which is good, I guess, but isn't all that necessary because of the screen in my window.

So I'm pretty sure my math class is being taught by James May. Which only makes more sense when I start thinking about it. It's also taught by some other old professor chick, and they are like a comedy duo. I'm actually excited for my next math class. It's also the first class where I've had a good chance to talk to other people. I suppose this is because the teachers sorted us into groups based on our musical ability (as well as our ability to breath and pump blood), and my group and I were given a good chance to chat. (We talked about infinity hotels. How great is that?)

It might also be because the kids in all of my other classes are pricks.