"How the hell can scorpions exist on other planets? It doesn't make any sense!"
The start of J-term has been going pretty well so far! It's still really hard to get myself moving when I absolutely need to -- getting up earlier (though I have been doing this to a certain extent), taking care of myself, taking shorter showers, reading faster, etc. But I have made a decent start, and change tends to come slowly anyway. I'll certainly live with it. XD
The class I'm taking, Self-Defense and War, has been going pretty well so far -- it's certainly not as "fun" as other J-term classes I've taken (both language classes, which explains a lot), but I still find this sort of applied philosophy interesting and stimulating. And challenging -- I'm finding it very hard to follow the trains of logic in what we've read so far, because there's a lot of assumptions being made and lots of "clarifications" that only serve to make things more confusing, etc. Until you realize that they're trying to ascertain why most people would think doing something in one case is morally permissible when doing the same thing in a similar situation isn't -- and even then, they're trying to make arguments on what is morally acceptable and what isn't, and it's hard to tell when they're doing one or the other, and UGH. DX I like thinking about these ideas and talking about them, but these readings are a slog to get through. What makes them amusing, though, is all their talk of evil villains, antitank missiles, berserker drugs, and ray guns; I can see these academics reading comic books and saying, "But this is for research, I swear!" 8D; (Or maybe they just think they're being clever or whatever. Who knows what spending too long in ivory towers does to you. O_o;)
I have two exams (one coming up next Monday DDDDDDDDDDDD8) and a group presentation that I have to do -- and the presentation's supposed to last 45-50 minutes. That's about 11-12 minutes per person, and believe me, that's shorter than it sounds. In my anime class last spring, I had to do two of them, and I went overtime on both of them; needless to say, it was nerve-wracking. -_-; Though it just shows I suck at public speaking -- I have no reason to, but there's definitely the fear of screwing up, and of not being "engaging" enough, and then there's the fact that I just don't prepare for these sorts of things as well as I should (and with me, it takes a lot of preparing). Not looking forward to that, believe me -- I don't even know what the presentations are supposed to be about yet. But this is definitely less work than the other J-term classes that I've had, so that's good. And I've been managing to finish my readings for once! And I don't have class on Fridays! THREE-DAY WEEKENDS WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! XDDDDDDDDDDDDD Oh yeah, and there's at least one friend and a couple other people I know in my class, so it won't be completely unbearable. I think this is going to be a good class. ;-)
Of course, it turns out that I have a lot more free time than I thought. I have not heard anything about Japanese review sessions, language tables, or the anime club's J-term tradition of holding meetings during the week as well as regular ones on Saturday evenings (well, at least not yet). And it seems like there will only be one J-House event per week (unless I'm mistaken and it's just for this week). And I'm not doing a workshop because those cost money, and because I'm getting very close to broke I want to save as much as possible for textbooks and other necessities. And there are literally no interesting events going on at the college all this month. And if it turns out that I'll have a lot more free time than I first thought, then......well, I'll have a lot more free time than I first thought. Normally this means I'd do a lot more reading and watching every day, but this hasn't been happening, mostly because class has taken more time than I first thought, and I've been feeling rather tired and lethargic all the time, so I'm just not very motivated. :(
Plus, Tuesdays are my busiest days -- class from 10:30-12:30, radio show from 2-3:30, and yoga from 7:30-9, with time to eat and study in between. Speaking of today: the radio show went really well, even though I had to start late because the station's been having lots of technical problems lately and the manager decided to try to do a little bit of fixing on my time (I wasn't pissed, since I know her and she's doing an excellent job as manager, and since not a lot of people had DJed before me she wanted to make sure things were working OK before I started, and it just took longer than expected). I seriously think today's playlist is my best one yet -- I'm so proud of myself for having it flow so nicely! 8D And then yoga was pretty awesome -- we have a real instructor instead of a student teacher, and it was definitely very different from what I'm used to (much more intense, but I didn't mind). I think I'm going to enjoy this, and I want to continue going to his classes in the spring provided I have room in my schedule; I might also try his meditation classes on Thursday nights, even though this week it kind of conflicts with the J-House event. :/
(A funny story our instructor told us: During the summer he teaches at a place somewhere in Vermont that attracts a lot of rich/upper middle class white people from New York. At the end of one class, where he taught the lion pose [kneeling with your toes curled under, having your hands in an attack gesture, and widening your mouth, sticking your tongue out, and roaring using your stomach], a woman came up to him and said, "That lion pose was so much fun, I'm canceling my Botox appointment!")
Also, words cannot express how much I love the latest albums from The xx, Etienne Jaumet, and Fuck Buttons right now. I mean wow. Wow. ^_______________^ Oh yeah, and this song too. And this one.
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I'm saving the best for last: I got a package from naggingfishwife today!!!!! She gave me the Chinese box set of the entire original Transformers TV series from the 1980s, as well as (unexpectedly enough) a movieverse Scorponok! ZOMG HELL YEAH =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD And it all came in a sweet-looking metal case too which I accidentally scratched up while trying to open the package, but oh well XPPP Even though it's the Chinese box set, it comes with the original English tracks, so I don't have to worry about having to learn Chinese to watch them (though they'll certainly come in handy if I ever decide to learn Chinese!). I'm not going to start watching it just yet, as I'm not yet in the mood for extremely silly and cracktastic Saturday morning cartoons from two and a half decades ago, but I'll definitely get around to it soon. As for Scorpy, I haven't tried transforming him yet (partly because I'm afraid of breaking him D8), but I'll make sure to try it in the near future as well. Thank you very much, Hill, for all this wonderful stuff!! I can't adequately express how much I appreciate it! And how did you know I'd like Scorpy anyway? ;-) (Though I do have a question: in the box set there are 15 DVDs -- the 14 ones for the show, and then one right before the first disc. The thing is, I can't tell what that disc is about. Do you know what it is?)
Now that I've gotten this, it's time to ask my f-list about certain things. Specifically, my fellow fandom friends (oooh, nice alliteration, huh? XD).
Because I want to use my shiny new poll function at least once:
Poll YOU GEEWUN MY HEART
If your answer can't fit in the text box, feel free to leave a comment.
And another question: this movieverse Scorponok is the first TF toy I have in my possession. Yeah, I know, I'm a bad fan, whatever. XD But the main reason I'm so averse to buying the toys for myself is because I don't know what the hell I'd do with them. So tell me, members of my f-list who are into this sort of thing: What do you do with your Transformers? Do they just sit around and collect dust? Do you play with them as if you were five years old? Do you pose them and take pictures with them? Are they the minions with which you will take over the world someday? What? Of course you don't have to answer this question or the poll above; I'm just genuinely curious! ^_^;
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Before I forget, I think there's something this coming Sunday that y'all ought to hear. Two of my friends do a weekly radio show discussing the weather and climate, and their climate change skepticism comes up often (don't worry, they're both total climatology nerds who know what they're talking about, and they're not batshit insane about it like other "skeptics"). Well, this Sunday the 10th, bestselling author, scholar-in-residence, and 350.org founder Bill McKibben will be on the show! He'll be discussing the science of climate change, and defending his position against two smart dissenters who are also very knowledgeable on the subject -- who knows what will happen? I'm very excited for my friends for getting such a wonderful opportunity, and it would be awesome to show your support and listen in. The show, "The Jet Stream," will be on this Sunday from 4-5 PM Eastern, 3-4 PM Central, 2-3 PM Mountain, 1-2 PM Pacific, 6-7 PM Chilean time, 9-10 PM GMT, and 10-11 PM Central European Time; you can listen in here. (This should cover pretty much everyone on my f-list. ^_^;) I'll remind everyone again as the day comes closer.
I should be going to bed soon, but I have comments I need to leave. ;-)
The class I'm taking, Self-Defense and War, has been going pretty well so far -- it's certainly not as "fun" as other J-term classes I've taken (both language classes, which explains a lot), but I still find this sort of applied philosophy interesting and stimulating. And challenging -- I'm finding it very hard to follow the trains of logic in what we've read so far, because there's a lot of assumptions being made and lots of "clarifications" that only serve to make things more confusing, etc. Until you realize that they're trying to ascertain why most people would think doing something in one case is morally permissible when doing the same thing in a similar situation isn't -- and even then, they're trying to make arguments on what is morally acceptable and what isn't, and it's hard to tell when they're doing one or the other, and UGH. DX I like thinking about these ideas and talking about them, but these readings are a slog to get through. What makes them amusing, though, is all their talk of evil villains, antitank missiles, berserker drugs, and ray guns; I can see these academics reading comic books and saying, "But this is for research, I swear!" 8D; (Or maybe they just think they're being clever or whatever. Who knows what spending too long in ivory towers does to you. O_o;)
I have two exams (one coming up next Monday DDDDDDDDDDDD8) and a group presentation that I have to do -- and the presentation's supposed to last 45-50 minutes. That's about 11-12 minutes per person, and believe me, that's shorter than it sounds. In my anime class last spring, I had to do two of them, and I went overtime on both of them; needless to say, it was nerve-wracking. -_-; Though it just shows I suck at public speaking -- I have no reason to, but there's definitely the fear of screwing up, and of not being "engaging" enough, and then there's the fact that I just don't prepare for these sorts of things as well as I should (and with me, it takes a lot of preparing). Not looking forward to that, believe me -- I don't even know what the presentations are supposed to be about yet. But this is definitely less work than the other J-term classes that I've had, so that's good. And I've been managing to finish my readings for once! And I don't have class on Fridays! THREE-DAY WEEKENDS WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! XDDDDDDDDDDDDD Oh yeah, and there's at least one friend and a couple other people I know in my class, so it won't be completely unbearable. I think this is going to be a good class. ;-)
Of course, it turns out that I have a lot more free time than I thought. I have not heard anything about Japanese review sessions, language tables, or the anime club's J-term tradition of holding meetings during the week as well as regular ones on Saturday evenings (well, at least not yet). And it seems like there will only be one J-House event per week (unless I'm mistaken and it's just for this week). And I'm not doing a workshop because those cost money, and because I'm getting very close to broke I want to save as much as possible for textbooks and other necessities. And there are literally no interesting events going on at the college all this month. And if it turns out that I'll have a lot more free time than I first thought, then......well, I'll have a lot more free time than I first thought. Normally this means I'd do a lot more reading and watching every day, but this hasn't been happening, mostly because class has taken more time than I first thought, and I've been feeling rather tired and lethargic all the time, so I'm just not very motivated. :(
Plus, Tuesdays are my busiest days -- class from 10:30-12:30, radio show from 2-3:30, and yoga from 7:30-9, with time to eat and study in between. Speaking of today: the radio show went really well, even though I had to start late because the station's been having lots of technical problems lately and the manager decided to try to do a little bit of fixing on my time (I wasn't pissed, since I know her and she's doing an excellent job as manager, and since not a lot of people had DJed before me she wanted to make sure things were working OK before I started, and it just took longer than expected). I seriously think today's playlist is my best one yet -- I'm so proud of myself for having it flow so nicely! 8D And then yoga was pretty awesome -- we have a real instructor instead of a student teacher, and it was definitely very different from what I'm used to (much more intense, but I didn't mind). I think I'm going to enjoy this, and I want to continue going to his classes in the spring provided I have room in my schedule; I might also try his meditation classes on Thursday nights, even though this week it kind of conflicts with the J-House event. :/
(A funny story our instructor told us: During the summer he teaches at a place somewhere in Vermont that attracts a lot of rich/upper middle class white people from New York. At the end of one class, where he taught the lion pose [kneeling with your toes curled under, having your hands in an attack gesture, and widening your mouth, sticking your tongue out, and roaring using your stomach], a woman came up to him and said, "That lion pose was so much fun, I'm canceling my Botox appointment!")
Also, words cannot express how much I love the latest albums from The xx, Etienne Jaumet, and Fuck Buttons right now. I mean wow. Wow. ^_______________^ Oh yeah, and this song too. And this one.
**************************************************************
I'm saving the best for last: I got a package from naggingfishwife today!!!!! She gave me the Chinese box set of the entire original Transformers TV series from the 1980s, as well as (unexpectedly enough) a movieverse Scorponok! ZOMG HELL YEAH =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD And it all came in a sweet-looking metal case too which I accidentally scratched up while trying to open the package, but oh well XPPP Even though it's the Chinese box set, it comes with the original English tracks, so I don't have to worry about having to learn Chinese to watch them (though they'll certainly come in handy if I ever decide to learn Chinese!). I'm not going to start watching it just yet, as I'm not yet in the mood for extremely silly and cracktastic Saturday morning cartoons from two and a half decades ago, but I'll definitely get around to it soon. As for Scorpy, I haven't tried transforming him yet (partly because I'm afraid of breaking him D8), but I'll make sure to try it in the near future as well. Thank you very much, Hill, for all this wonderful stuff!! I can't adequately express how much I appreciate it! And how did you know I'd like Scorpy anyway? ;-) (Though I do have a question: in the box set there are 15 DVDs -- the 14 ones for the show, and then one right before the first disc. The thing is, I can't tell what that disc is about. Do you know what it is?)
Now that I've gotten this, it's time to ask my f-list about certain things. Specifically, my fellow fandom friends (oooh, nice alliteration, huh? XD).
Because I want to use my shiny new poll function at least once:
Poll YOU GEEWUN MY HEART
If your answer can't fit in the text box, feel free to leave a comment.
And another question: this movieverse Scorponok is the first TF toy I have in my possession. Yeah, I know, I'm a bad fan, whatever. XD But the main reason I'm so averse to buying the toys for myself is because I don't know what the hell I'd do with them. So tell me, members of my f-list who are into this sort of thing: What do you do with your Transformers? Do they just sit around and collect dust? Do you play with them as if you were five years old? Do you pose them and take pictures with them? Are they the minions with which you will take over the world someday? What? Of course you don't have to answer this question or the poll above; I'm just genuinely curious! ^_^;
**************************************************************
Before I forget, I think there's something this coming Sunday that y'all ought to hear. Two of my friends do a weekly radio show discussing the weather and climate, and their climate change skepticism comes up often (don't worry, they're both total climatology nerds who know what they're talking about, and they're not batshit insane about it like other "skeptics"). Well, this Sunday the 10th, bestselling author, scholar-in-residence, and 350.org founder Bill McKibben will be on the show! He'll be discussing the science of climate change, and defending his position against two smart dissenters who are also very knowledgeable on the subject -- who knows what will happen? I'm very excited for my friends for getting such a wonderful opportunity, and it would be awesome to show your support and listen in. The show, "The Jet Stream," will be on this Sunday from 4-5 PM Eastern, 3-4 PM Central, 2-3 PM Mountain, 1-2 PM Pacific, 6-7 PM Chilean time, 9-10 PM GMT, and 10-11 PM Central European Time; you can listen in here. (This should cover pretty much everyone on my f-list. ^_^;) I'll remind everyone again as the day comes closer.
I should be going to bed soon, but I have comments I need to leave. ;-)