Best Reaction Ever

So this a bit redundant, but I got into Westminster. I've done everything to convey this news save going to the top of a very tall hill and yelling it at the top of my lungs (which, as those people who went to the first sci-fi club meeting of the year can attest to, is very loud.) As well as people "liking" my statuses and commenting and/or replying to those statuses, I had some people tell me in person congratulations. One such example was in theory and of course when someone says "congratulations" to someone else, if other people don't know why the first person is saying that, they like to know. So I said why the person was giving me congrats and then my theory professor went "huh?" So I said it again and he asked where and told him London and then he asked what I'm going to be studying. Now as I've said in the past, my theory professor doesn't hold pop music in the highest esteem, but has been making an effort not to completely slag the genre off as a whole. This has been done to varying degrees of sucess, so I was somewhat intrigued to see what his reaction would be to my answer, which was radio production and pop music. He looked at his papers with a frown on his face from confusion, repeated what I said and then said "Okay." We moved on and it was suggested that I write the department post cards. Now, I have a lot of respect for my theory professor, despite our differing views on the legitimacy of pop music. Everyone is allowed an opinion and a strong argument can be made, as has probably been made throughout pop's history, that pop music isn't really legit. But in my heart of hearts, I know he thinks that I'm wasting my time next semester. I don't think I am, but I can see where he's coming from. I just found it amusing to see the way he reacted. As nice as it was to have many people congratulating me, it was more amusing to see Dr. Long try and be diplomatic.
One last thing that has nothing to do with getting into Westminster. This is more a general statement, but I feel I need to say it. Sometimes I write things in this blog about situations in my real life. Sometimes when I do that, I don't always take into account that people in my real life can, quite possibly, see and read what I've written. It rarely happens, which is why I don't worry about it often. However this doesn't mean that I don't make mistakes. I am human and therefore make mistakes and misjudgements. This is just kind of my caveat to all of you out there in the ether: I'm not perfect and I sometimes write about things that I shouldn't. Anyway, just wanted to say that.
The only down side to finding out today, is that I can't really do anything to celebrate until Wednesday because of this analysis paper for history. Other than that though, my entire week is made. Entire month actually. My life is made. :does best impression of Bernard Black smiling:

Because I Have To Remain Calm Elsewhere

I GOT INTO WESTMINSTER!!!!!!!!!!!! BOOYA BITCHES!!!! I GOT IN!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 0_0
I got the email this morning. I am happy. And now, back to writing about Vivaldi's Gloria which is not fun.

Switzerland

I don't think I'll ever completely understand human nature. I do my best (as do philosophers and psychologists) but certain things just baffle me. For instance, why would you re-re-start dating someone who cheated on you repeatedly? Why be with someone who you seem incapable of being nice to? I'll never understand some things that people do.
In the positively brilliant play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the main characters George and Martha make everyone around them uncomfortable with their constant arguing and bickering. Reading the play was uncomfortable and profoundly moving, but imagine being around a couple, a very young couple, who are similar to that. They constantly bicker and you can just imagine what they'll be like in 20 years time, old and married. They'll still be bickering, the husband giving into the wife in a desperate bid to make her happy, but she'll never be happy. I know that attraction is uncontrollable and has absolutely nothing to do with logic (for the most part, and if it's real attraction) but why would you do that to yourself? Put yourself on the path to becoming a real life George and Martha? It's agonizing to watch the two of them go because in the back of my mind I'm seeing an old married couple who have done clinical psychological damage to their children. Maybe I'm just jealous (always a possibility), but what do you do? Ignore the awkwardness and hope that it goes away? Try to placate everyone by being Switzerland? I don't know. All I know is that it's frustrating at times. And confusing in general.
I made the big leap and read the entirety of the Wikipedia entry on Mika. He's a trained musician and has dyslexia. My respect has grown 100 fold and just proves my entire pro-pop music point: Really good pop music takes a knowledge of music beyond the power chords. :sticks out tongue in the general direction of Dr. Long:
And now, back to Bones.

Mika, Ranting, and Rain

In case you're wondering, Mika has taken over my head space. The Kaiser Chiefs are making a valiant effort by forcing me to wake up with their songs stuck in my head, but overall Mika has taken the place of top obsession for the moment. I suspect there will be a point where his infectious pop music will start to annoy and then t'Chiefs will ride in on a big horse and take back over, but for now it's all about Mika. Mika, Mika, Mika. Anyway, that's not the only reason I'm updating (yes, there's more than one reason.)
Westminster applications for next semester were due today and I'm dead nervous that a) my application didn't get there on time and b) I won't get in. I sent it over two weeks ago (approximately) but the mail people said 6 to 10 days and...I just want this to happen so badly and despite my college acceptance experience, I'm not entirely sure I'll get accepted into Westminster, which is way more important to me than getting into college was. Now that it's out my hands and...gaaaaah. I can't even verbalize/write how important getting in is and how scary/nervous-making this whole process is for me. It's like waiting for college acceptance letters times twenty-hundred five thousand million billion. I've jokingly told Stephanie that if I don't get in, she won't want to be my roommate next semester, but it's not a joke. If I don't get in, as far as I'm concerned my future is dead. Technically that might not be true, but that's how it feels. And of course it's raining and bitterly cold and I don't have a coat and left my umbrella at home. And yes, I know this pales in comparison to many peoples worries/fears, but dammit I get to be selfish sometimes.
Then of course we have fall break. I swear to god if my mum asks me if a) she's a good person or b) a good teacher ever again I'm going to throw cutlery at her face. I'm so tired of her insecurities. I'm tired of my dad cutting everything I do down to nothing even when it's actually really quite impressive. Amazingly enough my sister is the only person I can stand being around, but really that's only under certain circumstances. Back to my mum. She manages to direct every fucking conversation to special education and her experience with special education. I'm all for special education, but most of the theories and principles behind special education I think are bull shit. Studies are crap. Generalities mean diddly squat in real life. And my life has nothing to do with teach sp-ed. Nothing whatsoever. I'm just so tired of my family. I would have preferred to have spent fall break doing almost everything I did, but at school. It just pisses me off that I can't go home without coming back with a guilt complex and feeling like I didn't really have a break at. :listens to Mika:
At least I have my Zune back. It's been so nice having my music with me at all times. I don't have to converse with people randomly and I can listen to things that make me happy, which will be excellent tomorrow night which is when I'll really need it. Can I go to London now? Pretty please? I've been such a good girl lately. :sigh:
One of Stephanie's friends wrote the following on our whiteboard: "Isn't the weather great?" He was being serious (he wants to live in Germany when he graduates) and I've been wanting to see him in person so I can tell him, yes I can deal with this weather, but only if I have an umbrella and Wellingtons. I have neither and I know as soon as I acquire them, it will stop raining. But yes, this weather is great Houston.

Non-Topical Points of Interest

I'm home for fall break and here are some of the thoughts/interesting factoids I've garnered since the last time I updated.

• Glasgow is located in the Clyde Valley in Scotland (Thanks British calendar) [Immediately suspected that Glasgow was involved because of these faces, which I had seen before.]
• I'm either listening to Mika or a strange combination of playlists and new music, but I have my Zune back!
• You need elbows to put glasses on
• Mika is just like Micah, except British
• The biggest difference between Queen and Mika (in my opinion) is the use of guitars. Basically, Mika doesn't have Brian May
• I earned a Bronze Artist Power Listener badge for Mika after 3 days (which means I listened to Mika 200 times). I'm working on getting the album equivalent (which means listening to The Boy Who Knew Too Much 200 times). (I know I have an illness, no I don't care.)
• I am finally in possession of a white tie which means that either my Old Gregg costume is complete or I need to buck up and get some white gloves.
• I've mailed my application to Westminster (did this awhile ago, but I don't seem to have mentioned it yet) and hopefully it will arrive before Thursday. When I hear about acceptance is up for grabs.

So that's it. The definition of home changes constantly and as much as I needed this break from school, I would have preferred to have spent it not here. So yeah. Can I go back to school now?

LolliPOP

I think I've reached a point where my interests are so outside of what other people I know are interested in, that I no longer care what people will think. I blame Mika for this discovery. [I can't stop watching "We Are Golden." It's bad.] I was bound to hit this point, where the hipsters and trend-setters would no longer matter because I'm so immersed in a completely seperate culture. It's very liberating actually. Doesn't mean I'm going to start dressing or acting like a crazy person (I'm still very much a wallflower), but at least I'm starting to accept things that I wouldn't have when I first delved into pop culture almost five years ago. You can't accept the very serious without having a healthy dose of the not-serious-at-all. And that's all I have to say about.
This upcoming week is mid-terms and I have two tests (Tuesday and Friday) plus the regular radio show on Wednesday, so I won't be updating as furiously as I have been (most likely.) Just wanted to let y'all know. Evil mid-terms.

Music Videos

After last night's self-induced melodrama, I've decided to reward everyone with music videos. Since I've currently got Eddie Izzard's voice in my head, I won't say much more, save for some commentary next to some of the videos. Enjoy!

• Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyonce
• Uprising - Muse
• The Universal - Blur (See that reference to A Clockwork Orange? It's intentional)
• Mirrorball - Elbow (This was performed and recorded at Abbey Road studios and the band is backed by a live orchestra and chorus. Which is why this video is here.)
• Like It Too Much - Kaiser Chiefs (Well if Elbow can get a live video, why not my favourite band?)
• Antmusic - Adam and the Ants
• Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (The werewolf is played by Richard Ayoade[whose last name I spelled correctly without looking]. Except you can't tell, but that's alright, you know he's under there somewhere)
• Can't Stop Feeling - Franz Ferdinand
• Just - Mark Ronson
• Good Days Bad Days - Kaiser Chiefs (A real video. Not live.)
• Young Love - Mystery Jets
• Grounds for Divorce - Elbow (The actual real video. But if you look for the song on YouTube you can find the Abbey Road studio version as well.)
• Can't Say What I Mean - Kaiser Chiefs (This is me dragging all of you head long into my sick obsession. Just in case you weren't there already)
• We Are Golden - Mika (This is exactly what I expected this video to be like. And sadly I find Mika semi-attractive. :hangs head in shame:)
• Never Forget You - Noisettes
• Not the Only Person - The Rumble Strips
• Bulletproof - La Roux (She looks like she's scowling the entire time, and the video quality isn't that good so...good song!)
• Vienna - Ultravox (Ooooooooh Viennaaaaaaaaaaa!!!)
• Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It's Friday Again (So It's Probably Best to Ignore Me)

I hate him. I hate him for being my first. I hate him for moving on so quickly. I hate him for breathing. I hate him for laughing and acting like a normal person. I hate him for being nice to me when I'm so cold towards him. I hate him for making me care. I hate him for making me cry. I hate him for being so completely oblivious to how much he continues to hurt me by just existing. I hate him for making me feel so completely shitty. I hate him. I think I'll always hate him. I wish I had never said yes to watching that stupid movie with him. I hate myself for allowing him to do this to me. But most of all, I hate him for not noticing. I wish I could leave this school, go some place new. Somewhere far from him and everything that reminds me of him. From the tangled web and tension filled situations, where I'm the only one who feels any tension. I want to start over. I want him to understand all of this and to feel all this pain. I want him to feel all this hurt and anger. I hate him completely. And I'm sorry to all the people who have to even know about all of this. If I had known that this would be how things would turn out, I would never have said yes to anything.
I still hate him. I promise not to do this again though. You have all read it enough times to know how I feel. I just wish I had some rum right now. Or more chocolate.
I do try to act like a normal person though. Sometimes though, it's just too hard to keep the mask on. Tonight just happened to be one of those nights. Still, I'm sorry. It's not fair to the rest of you.

It's a Small World After All

The world, both in real life and on the internet, is a very small place. While I'm not often reminded of that fact, except when I'm on Facebook, it's always interesting when I am. Anyway, I just wanted to say that. The world is small. Go check out my latest radio show blog and watch "Vienna" because it's so much fun.

Necklaces

I don't know why I feel the need to write about what I'm going to write about at this particular moment but for some reason I feel the need to address something. It's two necklaces I own. I think I've written, or at least mentioned, both of these necklaces, but now that I have a cord for my camera and some free time, I'm going to write about them. Again, I don't know why I feel the need to do this, but I do. So here we go.

The necklace on the left was given to me by Loghman for my 18th birthday. This necklace got lost, I thought permantly, on the desk in my room at home. You see that desk was like a black hole until my Mum cleaned out of pure frustration with how messy it was. Anyway, I hadn't seen the necklace in quite a long time and now that I have found that I haven't lost it, I've started wearing it again. Back when Loghman gave it to me I wasn't particularly found of it because the chain was so long. But now that I have it back in my life, I wear it almost every day. I've been wondering why that it is, and I've come to following conclusion as to why I wear it so often: it reminds of someone who cared about me and liked me knowing full well that I was crazy. Back when Loghman gave me the necklace I was even crazier than I am now, and so wearing it reminds me that there has been someone in my life who cared about me selflessly (which in Greek translates to agape [thanks literature and religion!]). Given the events of last year, I need a reminder of that however I can get it.
Th necklace on the right I bought for myself about a month after the ex broke up with me and was gotten as a reminder that you create your own luck. At the time it was a sentiment that I grasped onto like a life boat because not only had the ex dumped, and had very quickly gotten back on the horse as it were, but my social and academic life seemed to be going down the drain. Wearing a necklace every day that reminded me, in essence, that I created my own fate, was helpful and reassuring during a time when I needed to be reassured of something.
Of the two necklaces, I value the one on the left more than the one on the right because of the sentimental value it holds. I just felt I should let the world know that about me.

Dumb Making

Oh dear readers, I have done a very stupid thing. In an effort to confirm something that I thought I had seen, I went to the Kaiser Chiefs' Summer 2009 picture gallery. Which was when I saw this* and died. Just died really. Further explanation could be given, but that's not the point of this entry. The point is that you, my dear readers, need to remind me not to do stupid things like look at overly attractive men. Work on that telepathy and psychic abilities people! Otherwise this blog will be entirely gibberish and insane ramblings...or at least more insane and gibberish-y. And now, I'm going to try and scrub my brain clean of that image. Maybe...**

*Normally, or at least a few years ago, I would have posted the picture. But now that I'm slightly less insane than I was a few years ago (and I like trolling through my more recent posts), I decided against doing that. Because really a daily (or every other day-ly) dose of dumb-making isn't necessary. I can do that by just going to school.
**This doesn't have anything to do with brain scrubbing, but this week was the last week of Mock the Week and during the final round one of the unlikely situations was "Lines You Wouldn't Hear in a History Documentary." Guest panelist Milton Jones said the following thing and I just had to share it: "1547, Nostradamus predicts the rock group the Kaiser Chiefs. He also predicts a riot." Now back to the mind scrubbing.

Uncomfortable Realities

So the long tortuous week is finally over. I survived with most of my sanity and integrity intact and didn't have to "choke a bitch" (I may have lost my ability to spell though.) However instead of writing about this past week (which by the way, will never happen), I'm going to write about my school newspaper's sex column. I promise to make it PG-13, but the hints might be TMI, so you have been warned.

When I started college I was absolutely sure I was going to be a journalist. In that vein I started avidly reading the school newspaper, waiting for the day I would be in the by-line. It never happened and I turned to radio as my preferred venue to brain wash the masses. However I continued to read the newspaper, enjoying the typos and grammatical errors to the fullest extent that one can enjoy such things. There were (and still are) two featured columns that I particularly like and even if I don't read any of the articles, I always read those two columns. Susannigans delved into the life and opinions of one the cooler people on campus (at least in my opinion) while Sexclamations was like reading a weekly brochure on a foreign country (even when I was in a relationship.) I read Dan Savage's weekly sex advice column, but Sexclamations provide a female perspective without somehow being associated with Dr. Ruth. It was real and founded in the college life. However at the beginning of the school year, the regular writer left Sexclamations leaving a hole in my weekly reading habits. Today, while flipping through this week's issue of The Bullet I found out who had replaced the old writer: My ex and his horny friend.
There's an odd trend that I've noticed about sex. Most perspectives on sex, at least in the media, are written from women well past their prime or men. What I liked about Sexclamations is the woman who wrote the column was neither of those things. Now that it is being written by "two (possibly) over-sexed idiots" I'll only have the advice of a gay man to tell me how sexual relationships work (not that Dan Savage isn't more than adequate or capable, but even gay men have testosterone.) While I will concede that my ex and his horny friend's opinions are valid (in that they are their opinions), what made Sexclamations great was that it was the from the view point of a horny woman something you don't hear about very often in the world of college (horny guys on the other hand are a dime a dozen.) Of course some might argue that I'm biased against the new writers because I'm currently not on good terms with my ex (and never really liked his horny friend) to which I say, yes. I am biased against both of them. But even if the column had been taken over by two guys I didn't know, I would still be disappointed. I just happen to be predisposed to disliking the two who have taken over writing Sexclamations.
And now that I have nowhere else to go, I'll leave you to mull over the opinion I have set forth. See, this is why I'm not a journalist.

Nore's [Fill in the Blank] Radio Show

Every week I do a brief (hahaha) run down of my radio show over at wmwc.umwblogs.org so that people who happen to know about that blog can catch up on what I did during my show. I've recently added links to videos on YouTube to make sure I can still do basic html while typing (I can). Because I haven't written in this blog in a while, I'm going to copy this week's entry to this blog, so you too can enjoy my show without having to actually listen to me nattering away and forgetting which song is next (because my Zune still hasn't shipped). Have fun!

This week's show was made in the face of much opposition. This week's show was created out my sweat and tears as the last thread of my sanity went down the proverbial drain. This week's show happened in spite of the fact that no one did a thing to speak of. This week's show was created because I care about all of you. This week I'll give you both the talking points and videos. Don't expect that kind of respect next week. So now for the dets.

Playlist [There were two minor revisions from the original playlist, but no worries, I wrote everything down this week]

1. Morning Light - Ida Maria
2. Ignore the Ignorant - The Cribs
3. Bad Reputation - Joan Jett
4. Rudie Can't Fail - The Clash
5. Right Where They Left - The White Rabbits
6. Can't Stop Feeling - Franz Ferdinand
7. Just - Mark Ronson
8. When The Cows Come Home - Blur
9. French Navy - Camera Obscura
10. London - The Rumble Strips
11. Mouthwash - Kate Nash
12. Waiting - Cake
13. Good Days Bad Days - Kaiser Chiefs
14. F*** You - Lily Allen [This is the explicit version, so be warned]
15. Seattle - The BPA
16. Young Love - Mystery Jets
17. Burial - Miike Snow
18. Fire - Kasabian
19. Grounds for Divorce - Elbow*
20. Wait For Me - The Pigeon Detectives
21. Low Rising - The Swell Season
22. On the other side - The Strokes
23. Blue Skies - Noah and the Whale
24. Can't Say What I Mean - Kaiser Chiefs**
25. Golden Years - David Bowie***
26. We Are Golden - Mika
27. Ulysses - Franz Ferdinand

The Talking Points

• Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard tie the knot
• Many bands and artists, including Thom Yorke, sell their souls to the Twilight franchise
• OK Go, go on tour in the UK this January
• Canada awards its version of the Mercury Prize to punk rock sextet F-ed Up
• Ted Leo signs to Matador Records and everyone hopes he's not actually a black widow in human form
• I expounded on the illegal download policy situation in the UK. Here's the end result (4 paragraphs in). Further updates will be given if I don't get to tired of reporting on it.

Releases

• Mum - Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know
• Rufus Wainwright - Milwaukee at Last!!! [Deluxe Edition]
• Baseman Jaxx - Scars
• Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk

Well that's it for this week. Next week is up in the air, though there will defininatly be music, I can promise you that. Until then, don't panic.

*As with last week I'm featuring Elbow backed by a full orchestra. The first link is to the official video, the second to the Abbey Road session. What can I say, I'm a sucker for orchestration.
**This is me, dragging you into my sad obsession. I apologize.
***Whenever I hear this song, I think of the big dance scene from A Knight's Tale. So in choosing a video link, guess what I went with. The big dance scene from A Knight's Tale.

The Feeling is Gone, Only You and I

Dear Blog Readers,
I'm not going to be updating for at least another week. My life is incredibly stressful and thinking about it makes me sad. Also, I have no social life outside of school work, so unless you really want to hear me moan about how stressful school is (which I'm sure you don't), I'm not going to be updating until next week probably. Also, normally I would say I'll be updating this weekend, but this weekend is Family Weekend here at school, so let's all imagine how stressful that will be. Imagined it? Yeah that's why I won't be updating until next week. :sigh: Just remember: This means nothing to meeeeeeeee!!! Oooooooh Viennaaaaaaaaa!
Sincerely,
Nore
Tuesday Night Edit: As I told my roommate, I'm coming very close to reaching my stress threshold, which means pretty soon I'll be cranky as all get out and won't have any kind of patience for anything that disrupts my pre-ordained schedule/daily patterns. Also, my Zune hasn't been shipped (even though the billing information was received last Friday), so I have nothing to help alleviate the stress when I'm not in my room. Sadly, over eating has lost it's charm (feeling nauseous doesn't help anymore) which means I might have to choke a bitch pretty soon.

BBC Press Release for Never Mind the Buzzcocks

BBC Two's irreverent pop quiz, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, returns to our screens this autumn with a brand new line-up.

Joining the panel this year as team captain, alongside the ever repressible Phill Jupitus, is Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding.

Following Simon Amstell's departure after three successful years, the new series will be presented by a string of guest hosts including Alex James*, Dermot O'Leary, Jack Whitehall**, Rhod Gilbert, David Walliams***, Frank Skinner, James Corden and Mark Watson.

As ever, celebrity guests from the world of music and entertainment will join team captains Phil and Noel as the guest host each week navigates them through a number of musically based quiz rounds.

With the show's reputation for the unpredictable, guests are always primed for the occasional embarrassment and harmless ribbing as their knowledge of music is put to the test.

Noel Fielding said of joining the show: "I am so excited about Buzzcocks. I am leaping across the Camden rooftops dressed as a small white kitten."****

Never Mind The Buzzcocks will return to BBC Two from Tuesday 29 September.

*Yes, Alex James is the same Alex James I've been mocking mercilessly for the past four years. I'm ecstatic.
**He was a guest this past week on Mock the Week and if I had known he was younger than me I would have been slightly more impressed (and I was impressed to begin with.)
***He annoys me for the most part, so you can look him up yourself.
****I can actually imagine him doing that, which either says something about me or about him, I haven't decided which yet.

A Weekend in Brief

So my plans for this weekend didn't exactly go to plan. For instance yesterday I spent three hours a birthday party I had no idea was happening. So let's star there.
Yesterday morning I woke up with a definite plan in my mind: Go see A Mid-Summer Night's Dream and do fuck-all else. And then I checked my email and saw that a friend of mine had sent me a message over facebook. So I started checking the message when I saw that the header was "Hunter's B-day?" I stopped reading the message and concentrated on doing things other than reading the message. The weird/crazy thing is that when I was setting up my schedule at the beginning of school I was convinced something was happening on the 12th. I was right, just not about what was happening. Anyway, I put off reading the message until I had finished checking everything else on the internet and then finally read it. I had, hesitantly, been invited to the ex's 21'st b-day party by a mutual friend. I then preceded to freak and call home to get advice on what to do. My sister said to not go, but Mum said to go and stay at least a half hour. I ended going and staying three hours. The mutual friend was glad I came and I got to spend some quality time "learning" how to play Risk and talking to another friend of mine. I barely made I contact with the ex and didn't say goodbye or happy birthday. I got cake as well, so a fairly good time was had by all. I didn't do anything rude (like neighing under my breath) and didn't do bodily harm to the VIP. So, in short, it was an unplanned success.
Today didn't go to plan either really. I didn't see A Mid-Summer Night's Dream mainly because I'm lazy, but also because it would have been hot and I would have been eaten alive by the bugs. Mostly though I was just lazy and ended up spending the majority of the day rewatching episodes of Ashes to Ashes. I also started finding the disparate pieces for my Halloween costume, wherein I will dress up as Old Gregg to either complete failure or semi-success. I've also decided that if Old Gregg doesn't work out, I'll be the Moon. I've also started working on my study abroad application once again. I'm turning in the application request for an official transcript tomorrow, but the big thing I'm worried about is the personal essay. How do I explain my reasons for wanting to join the study abroad program without sounding crazy (or really pathetic)? I might be posting a dry run through up here, but we shall see. I've got a month to finish everything and have it shipped to Westminster, so you can see why I'm a little worried at the moment. Still I have one radio show edited and ready to send off and I'm going to go talk to my advisor and the IAS people tomorrow, so at least I'm making some good head way with this. :sigh:
So there's my weekend. Not a complete dud and definitely less depressing than last weekend. Let's hope the trend continues.

The Week in Brief

I got mentioned in my school's newspaper today. The online edition doesn't show it, but in the hard edition (which takes drugs) there's a neat little column that recommends some shows to listen to. And guess who get's her own category? That's right, Nore! I was in the Washroom (which is like the Student Union on most campuses) and I just about flipped out when I saw it. "Brit-pop: Nore [Last Name]- Wednesday, 8-9 p.m." So what if the show is actually from 8pm to 10pm? I am my own category. I'm thrilled. I'm keeping the article forever. It's the capstone to what started out as a pretty shit week. So let's start from the beginning.

Monday
I woke up tired. I woke discouraged and slightly depressed. My Zune sat in it's little package waiting to be sent off to Laredo, Texas and it dawned on me, completely, that I would have no portable music, and with my schedule, no music most of the time. It was gloomy and I had nothing to perk me up. Ultimately Monday wasn't that interesting. My religion lit. class seems to drag on and on, but at least the reading material is interesting. Mu Phi had it's first meeting and I wrote a resume for Jean-Baptiste Lully. I went to bed tired.

Tuesday
I woke up tired again. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the worst because I have a class at 8:15am and I am the least morning person alive (though, actually that's not true, but I digress.) Tuesday was another gloomy day and to add to the despondancy, the one artist who I hadn't heard of won the Mercury Prize. Band killed my soul and I started dealing with music withdrawal symptoms (namely going insane.) I made a fairly successful playlist for my radio show and went to bed with hope that Wednesday would prove to be a better day.

Wednesday
It wasn't. I told a class of wannabe elementary school teachers not to treat learning disabled students like idiots and got a $5 Starbucks gift certificate for the effort. I sweated like a crazy person and my nerves stayed with me the rest of the day. I polished off the talking bits of my radio show and realized how very dependant I am on listening to music in between classes. And then the program I use to record my radio show from the internets didn't record the whole thing. Which is fine in a way because I wasn't even sure I wanted to use the show for Westminster (which is the reason I record the show) but now I don't even have the option really. I went to bed tired and hopefully about the next because I had an appointment to socialize.

Thursday
The day didn't start sunny or end sunny. But it was a good nonetheless because I hung out with some friends and had good food (Thai is lovely.) Classes weren't stressful, band set-up wasn't stressful, the brass section sat in the correct seats, and I tried in vain to defend Henry Purcell's one try at opera. I worked my lab hours and then went off to socialize. It was fun, though I now have blisters on the balls of my feet. I totally freaked my roommate out (who's insane by the by), but that was okay. I had had a good day.

Friday
Basking in the glow of the previous day, I didn't really have many expectations for today. I caught a glimpse of my ex during psych and spent the rest of the class trying to act like I hadn't while taking notes on the brain and neurons. And then I found out about the WMWC article and the rest of my day was made. Not much else happened really. The DW club (which is what it will always be) didn't have a meeting meaning I didn't have to see my ex, which in my opinion is always a good thing. I had frozen pizza for dinner and everything is good. Very zen. I also spent way too much time fretting over when my Zune will get to Laredo, I want it back so desperately! But it's not scheduled to arrive until the 15th, which probably means it won't be delivered back to the house until the 20th, maybe the 25th. Still, hope springs eternal that I will have my portable music back by the end of the month. We shall see.

Alright, I'm going to go to bed now. The massive amounts of diet coke I drank tonight coupled with the sugar I have digested is making me jittery and sleepy. I'm going to see an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream tomorrow and may or may not do quickie reviews of the new Arctic Monkeys and Cribs' albums. I'll just say one is good and one is trying to hard (it's up to you to guess which is which.) Now, I will worry about breakfast for tomorrow and sleep. Until then.

Big Block of Stress

This week has been insane. I've been trying to do things in the in between times that exist in my schedule and the bitch part is that every office on campus closes at 5pm (or 4pm if you're the post office) so I've been trying to get all of this stuff done before 5pm. It's insane and sweaty and I hate feeling like a headless chicken. And then yesterday, to top off this insane week, my Zune fell in the toilet while I was changing for bed. I'm going to be without my Zune until at least late September and possibly until the second week of October. This of course puts a major wrench in my radio show/demos for Westminster because without my Zune I have to rely entirely on the songs that I can burn onto a CD (or two) which is severely limiting because I don't actually own that much new music. I mostly just own old-ish music. I can't use my computer either because I have to use that to record the show in the first place and I don't want to try playing and recording the music at the same time because of feedback from the speakers and the whole thing just imploding. And it's just all so stressful. I hate stress. I also hate being mean to my roommate for no reason. She was pointing out to a friend (who's over in England) that I basically just sit on my bed and nothing else. So tonight I've been harping on that, which I recognize as being emotionally manipulative and that she's absolutely right. I do just sit on my bed and nothing else. But it's not like I'm proud of the fact that I'm a hermit. Sure I act that way, but I know it's strange and outside the social norm to prefer sitting on my bed and watching Kingdom to talking to people and going out and all that. I'm not the going out type. It's aurally overwhelming to do that and life in and of itself is already aurally overwhelming enough that when I don't have to be in classes and the like the last thing I want to do is go out and party or something. And then for some reason I felt compelled to tell Stephanie all about my auditory processing disorder. What was interesting though was how she immediately latched onto the idea that it would be hard to concentrate in class, which can be true if I'm bored/tired. So that's my life at the moment. I am the perennial chicken without a head. Thank God for Stephen Fry or I'd really be losing it.

When I Woke Up Tonight

The other night I put my ticket wall up and I must say I've been to a great many rock shows in my time. Many have been good. Some have been only so-so (I'm looking at you Sonar). But only four have been truly great*. Sadly I don't have a ticket for the first really great concert I went to, but Sophie and I have determined that half of the really great concerts I've been to have been at Merriweather Post Pavilion (which has horrible parking by the way.) The first (and only time) I saw the Killers and Keane was amazing. I stood on the lawn grinning like a complete idiot during the Killers' set and Keane were amazing (though I had no clue who they were, so it was a bit different.) Since I've only been to Merriweather Post Pavilion you can guess what the other brilliant show I've seen is.
I got into Franz Ferdinand in 2005(ish). I was a year behind then and rather unfortunately when I stepped on the completely trashed lawn of the West Stage of this year's Virgin Free Fest I was 5 years behind in gig-going. Up until this past Sunday I had been unable, for one reason or another, to attend a Franz Ferdinand show. Needless to say I was really excited and wasn't exactly sure what to expect.
They were amazing. I smile just thinking about what a great show it was. Sure they didn't say a lot, but even Bob (the bassist) had a certain energy that was just irrepressible. You couldn't help but rock out has hard as is physically possible (or at least I couldn't help doing that.) It was a tight little set that fooled you into thinking it was shorter than it actually was (encore included I would say it was an hour at most.) It's hard to properly describe something that was so...almost spiritual (how overwrought, eh?) Still, it was a brilliant show and the sore neck and throat, the sleep deprivation and insane schedule I put up with in the aftermath was worth it a million times over. After a string of mediocre and lack luster concerts, it was really, really brilliant to see a show so wonderful. As a person I once knew said, if you get the chance, go see Franz Ferdinand.

Set List

1. No You Girls
2. Dark of the Matinee
3. Do You Want To?
4. This Fire
5. Turn It On
6. Tell Her Tonight
7. Take Me Out
8. Ulysses
9. What She Came For
10. Outsiders

Encore

• Michael
• Darts of Pleasure
• Lucid Dreams [a strange combination of the single and album versions of the song and at the end, one by one they left the stage]

*The four best concerts I've been to in chronological order: The Killers (June 8, 2005); 1st Kaiser Chiefs (Jul. 22, 2005); 2nd Swell Season (May 17, 2008); Franz Ferdinand (Aug. 30, 2009)

First Week 2009

Tonight I'm finally going to get to see Fraaaaaanz Ferdinaaaaaaaand. It will be the highlight of what has proven to be a slightly stressful and definitely an exhausting week.
This week has proven why I hate bureaucracy. While the inefficiencies of bureaucracy amuse to a certain extent, it's also terribly exhausting and frustrating when those inefficiencies get in the way of my well thought out plans. This week has also proven why people in positions of power can be absolute fucking idiots. So let's start with Monday.
Monday wasn't actually that stressful save for the fact that I didn't request disability accommodations when I thought I had and therefore did not get to tell my professors about said accommodations at the time I thought I would be. Otherwise Monday was extremely unstressful, especially compared to the rest of my week. My pysch professor is great and I'm really looking forward to that class. Theory is theory and there's not a whole hell of a lot I can do to change the insanity of the 20th century. I also had my first (and it would turn out last) pilates class which was really enjoyable.
Tuesday proved to be slightly more stressful only because I couldn't do band set-up until a half-hour before practice was suppose to start and neither Bartram nor I had any idea how many of each instrument was going to show up. This year we have a plethora of clarinets (a subject I'll address more of in my recap of Thursday) and a scarcity of brass. And one percussionist. Band's going to be very depressing this semester. Music history (which from this point forward will be called "history") on the other hand is going to be great. Prof. Fillerup is as wonderful as I remember her being and I'm really looking forward to this semester. Astronomy...I'll address astronomy when I get to Thursday.
Wednesday was a lot like Monday except I had club carnival. Club carnival consisted of me standing in the sweltering heat shilling the radio station to passing strangers. It wasn't that bad really, until I had re-sign-up for the DW club (which will always be the DW club, I don't care). That was painful only because I had to act like I didn't want punch my ex in the face and break his sonic screwdriver pen. I also had chorus on Wednesday I'm really, really hoping that I won't be section leader again this semester. It's a good group though and I think this will be another excellent semester, though hopefully no fainting.
Oh Thursday. I spent a lot of time explaining my accommodations to various professor, some who got it and some who didn't. I also had Bartram tell me that all of the 3rd clarinets, save myself, suck. Band will continue to be very frustrating and I'm just glad Stephanie agrees with me. I don't think I could room with someone who doesn't think Bartram is a prat, which he is. Now astronomy.
Oh astronomy. I was so excited about astronomy. And when the professor turned out to be a mumbling old man I thought "My love of the stars and planets and having someone else take my notes will get me through this class." But then Prof. Royce gave me back the notebook that I had given him so that he could ask someone in the class to take notes for me and at that point it became painfully clear that not only was he a mumbling old man, he was mumbling, batty old man who didn't understand the idea behind disability accommodations. I was going to have to fight him every single time I wanted one of my accommodations fulfilled. My love of the planets and stars was not going to be enough to get me through this class. So when my mum told me to get the hell out of the class, I did. I'm now taking "Studies in Faith and Literature" wherein I will read my second work by Camus and my first by Dostoevsky (1,045 pages). I'm also going to get to take an extra yoga and kickboxing class, which is nice.
Friday wasn't particularly special. I had to tromp over to Marye house because bureaucracy is stupid and a fellow student in my psych had to have the principle behind assisted note taking explained to her, which has never happened before and I thought Prof. Mailloux handled it wonderfully.
So that's it. Monday the radio station is having an interest meeting at four which should be amusing and I have my first show on Wednesday (9pm to 10pm EST). A set list from tonight's show should be up within the week, but I make no promises. Until next time.

Good Times

Recently I've been a bit blue. I blame this on my on going family issues and having fuck all to do. Well tonight made up for some of the loser-ness that has been my life for awhile. First we had a dorm meeting where I got to take the piss out of my ex's girlfriend* and generally act confused when forced to participate in a "get to know your neighbours" game. Then there was a radio station meeting. There's something about inept administrations and the frustrations they lay upon the rest of us that brings me all kinds of joy. In actuality, it's incredibly idiotic that the school won't let the radio station have a computer, since we live in a closet, but I can't help but smile when I hear about just how stupid the school administration is. Maybe it's because of years of training by my school county (thank FFX!) but I kind of revel in idiocy. Sure it can be pissing, but ultimately I find a perverse kind of humour to the whole thing. So there you have it. Idiocy makes me happy.
Tomorrow classes start. My first class isn't until 1pm, but I've come up with a list of tasks I have to do, most of which I'm not terribly excited about. My first task, outside of showering and eating breakfast, is to see if my accommodations are ready. My second task is to go to pysch services and see if I can schedule some appointments to talk about things with Larissa. There are some obvious reasons why I'm a bit apprehensive about doing these things, but mainly I don't want to do them because I'm lazy and hate doing things for myself. Still, these tasks can't be avoided and hopefully I won't run into anyone who I don't want to run into and still have some time to read Dracula. All I know is that I'm going to be listening to a lot of Kaiser Chiefs in the next few days.
On one last note, I can have rum in my room without Stephanie or I getting in trouble. Of course, no rum for Stephanie.
*In a show of good roommate-ness and general saneness, when I told Stephanie that I think my ex's girlfriend looks like horse she responded "I was thinking the exact same thing!" Turns out the slag is a club with Stephanie and she spent an entire afternoon sitting across from said slag thinking "she looks like a horse." That made my night, along with the station meeting where we found Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans and an empty box for Pinnacle vodka in the station.

My Radio Show

LJ Writer's Block Question: If you had your own radio or television station, what would it be called and what kind of programming would it play?
This is kind of an easy question to answer since I do in fact have a college radio show (wmwc.umw.edu baby!) But in my perfect world, were the minor restrictions I have placed on me are removed, my radio show would be all British most of the time. Sure every once in a while an American or other non-British artist would pop up, but 99.9% of the time I would play British music from the 1960's onward. Honestly though, it wouldn't be that different from the show I have now except I wouldn't be trying to fit in songs that I don't know that well that were released in the last 6 months into the show. I would also play ABBA without fear of ridicule in this perfect world, but that's something completely different. Anywho, the name of my show is "Nora's [Fill in the Blank] Radio Hour" which harkens back to when I started posting Facebook events for my show and would call it "Nora's Ridiculously Named Radio Hour" or "Nora's Awesome Amazing Radio Hour." At least it has a name now. I didn't when I started.

A Letter to a Friend

Dear Stephanie,
You still like him don't you? I can't exactly judge since I held a torch for an equally nasty guy for 3 years, but you have to admit, you act like you still like him. Despite my own history, I have to admit, I don't get it. After everything he's done to you, the pain he put you through last spring (and all the times before) how you can even stand to be around him, let alone still care for him? He's a rotten bastard, who if he had you back would ultimately just hurt you again. Maybe I'm wrong about him, it's not as if I have the highest opinion of men at the moment. He doesn't seem all bad, but there's just this little hint that he's really not that good either. I know better than to say any of this to you, but I worry a little that you're going to get hurt again and I'd hate to see that happen. You've got a good boyfriend now, so please, use that brain I know you have and don't mess that relationship up for an ass like him (the other not-boyfriend.) I see that he's trying hard to get back into your life but remember what he's done and keep that in mind when you're around him. Just because he's nice now, doesn't mean he'll be nice later on. Do what's in your best interest I guess is what I'm trying to say and let this guy go, it will be for the best I think.
Sincerely,
Nore

Good Lord I Suck At This

:sigh: I could apologize for not updating, but that's just getting redundant isn't it? So yeah, I've been a complete loser updating this summer and for that I am sorry. Between working, yoga, kickboxing, and finding out some pretty revelatory stuff about myself/my dad, updating my blog hasn't been exactly a top priority. I have a bunch of news stories I want to share and stressers to bitch about, so I'll just get straight to those.
News! Oh the world has been semi-kind to me the past couple of weeks. First of all The Mighty Boosh came out on DVD so I have that wonderful goodness to watch whenever I want without the guilt of watching it as a downloaded thing. Also there's been news from the rock world that has amused me much. To start off with on the first night of the Green Day North American tour, Ricky broke a rib. I find this amusing largely because he'd had such a good run of not breaking anything and then bam! Breaks a rib on the first night of a tour I loathe. It's a bit self-centred I admit, but I'm a big believer in instant karma and she owes me some niceness. Also, Preston of "Preston and Chantelle" fame has admit he regrets being a big prat on NMTB. It's nice to know he'd like to go on now that Simon has left and the bitch has divorced him so that it's only pitiful career the new guest host can make fun of. And finally the former drummer for Razorlight, Andy Burrows, is joining We Are Scientists for their third album. While this doesn't replace the irreplaceable Tapper, it does prove at least one thing: Razorlight sucks ass.
So I have no clue when I'm heading back to school. I'm worried about that, facing my ex and not being able to get everything done I need to get done before classes start. It's overwhelming and my head hasn't stopped hurting since Friday. Unfortunately there isn't much I can do about any of the things that are stressing me right now, or I've already done everything I can do to alleviate them to the best of my ability. I hate waiting for things to happen, especially when I know there's nothing I can do to change the course of events. Mind you I can now recognize that this hatred of change and not being in control has to do with my daddy issues (which by the way I won't get into for the sake of everyone's sanity) but it doesn't change how I'm feeling right now. Sadly, this week at the beach probably won't help to alleviate any stress I have at the moment, but oh well. If things go according to plan I'll be out of the house a week from now and back at school stressing about new things. :sigh: C'est la vie.
Edit: I heard from my GM and I'm all set to move in early. As I told my roommate, one less thing to worry about, thank god.

Day Off

I have a tendency to stay away from things that make me angry. I like things that make me happy say, the Swell Season coming back or Law and Order: UK being renewed. It's strange, I know, wanting to be happy instead of angry, but sometimes the anger can't be avoided. Like when the Kaiser Chiefs send out an email announcing they'll be touring in the States (yes, I already knew that, known for many moons) opening for Green Day. Being reminded of something that makes me angry just makes me more angry and then I have to call a memorandum out of anger (that's right, a memorandum.) I know I've done this before (many, many, many, many times before) and I'll probably continue to this (many, many, many more times) but I'm insane and sick, so :raspberry:. Anyway, I had declared my memorandum of anger on the Kaiser Chiefs when my sister insisted on showing me the following video:

[I'm so fancy, embedding a video]
As you may or may not be able to see it's called "Doctor Who Audition Tape." It's Ricky trying out to be the Doctor. I didn't actually watch the entire thing (some of it was only heard because I covered my eyes out of embarrassment on behalf of R) but it's pretty damn funny. And embarrassing. It's hard to stay mad at band who's lead singer uses his day off to make something like this. Damn his adorable eyes.

I'm Not Dead

I just play a corpse on TV.
Anyway, I just want all of you to know that I haven't died and the reason I'm saying this is because on Sunday I was pretty sure I was going to die from agonizing pain. I even got to go to the emergency room! (I hate hospitals by the way because when I was in 7th grade I went in for nose surgery and came out with a cold.) Turns out I probably just have a really nasty intestinal virus that hates me, not gall stones like my mum and the doctor first suspected. I think I spent between three and four and half hours partially zonked out and listening to my classical mix. Not how one I thought I was going to spending my Sunday, but except for this strange twinge in my lower abdomen, I'm feeling much better. Not 100%, but also not dying.
The day before (Saturday) was much more interesting for me in a weird way. I got fitted for a bra for the first time. It was incredibly embarrassing, but definitely worth said embarrassment for reasons I won't be elaborating on here. Just know that getting fitted for a bra is not a stupid as it sounds.
One last observation: Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie is all of Joss Whedon's wittiness without any of the emotional baggage that he usually gives us (the viewer). So basically, not very good.

Random Updates from the Beyond

I realize I've been fairly inconsistent with the whole updating thing, but I'm just going to say this: I didn't mean to not update for 11 days. Quite frankly, it doesn't really feel like 11 days have gone by and not that much has happened. I go to work on Mondays and Wednesdays, I go to yoga and/or kickboxing, I sleep, I watch ridiculous amounts of crap on my computer, and then I sleep some more. My life is, for the most part, exceedingly boring. I've become a crazy work-out person who, when not working out or working, is recuperating from the crazy work-outs I put myself through. Sure I've probably lost some weight and can punch things real good (with either my hands or my elbows) but other than watching Buffy, Eureka, Merlin, and Warehouse 13 I spend a lot of time driving to and from either yoga or kickboxing. I'm even giving up my Saturday mornings now to kickboxing, which makes me exceedingly sad, but makes more sense than doing an hour and half of asana yoga and then doing an hour of kickboxing later the same day. I really don't know if I'm going to be able to keep this up, but I know it's good for me. Like working out my daddy issues is good for me, except with less crying and feeling depressed afterwards. So yeah. I guess you can say "time flies when your kicking your own ass into the ground." Pretty soon I'll be heading back to UMW with my pretty dresses and pretty skirts and my majorly reduced wardrobe and I'll be wishing it was summer. Actually scratch that last part. I won't be wishing it was summer. I'll be wishing it was winter.
In other news I recorded my first of three "over the summer" demos for my Westminster application. I've been thinking of reducing the number of practical modules I'm thinking of taking to just one and taking another theoretical module to make up for the practical module. Granted I do have to keep in mind that I'm only going to be taking four of the eight classes I have picked out, so really I could just put one of the practical modules as a second choice, none of which affects the fact that I have to make these stupid demos anyway. :sigh: Radio shows should be much more spontaneous than these stupid demos are making them. And I should be allowed to curse just a little bit.
That's it for now. I'll update sometime in the future.

I'm Three (A Commute Story)

If someone were to ask me what my least favourite part of DC is, I would say leaving or coming to it by public transport. Commuting into DC is my least favourite part of my Monday/Wednesday schedule and if there was some magical way I could teleport into the office, I would (trust the drive is even worse.) Unfortunately teleporation has not been invented, so I have to commute. But sometimes the commute isn't so bad, like today. Today's commute home has a cute story, which makes the annoyance of having to deal with tourists and sweating too much worthwhile. Story time.
My commute home from work is divided into three "legs." The first leg is taking the green line, the second leg is taking the orange line and the last leg is the bus. Well today whilst on the second leg of my odyssey a family of six boarded my car and I internally groaned. Tourist groups/families are a pain because on a train it's very hard to control hyperactive kids who've couped up in museums all day. So this family of six divide themselves with the girls on one side and the two boys (dad and son) on my side. The son was looking around, and is common with small children, started starring at me for no real reason. I was holding a hankerchief in my hand (sweat's a bitch) and so I did a two finger wave at the little boy. His immediate reaction was to say "I'm 3" while putting up three fingers. Moments like that a) make me wish I could take the cute little ones home with me and b) make the commute slightly less painful.
As I've mentioned before, I've taken up kickboxing to work out my pent up anger and lose weight. Well I've also now taken up yoga. While yoga in general has a rather zen connotation, it turns out the yoga studio I've signed up with practices a form of yoga called Asana and as one nice woman who introduced herself to me before class said, it's like being at the equator and running through a jungle. I sweated more in that hour and a half than I ever have. I spent about 25% to 30% of the class in child's pose. I'm taking my second class tomorrow. I think I've lost my mind.

Late Breaking Ridiculous News

Today I'm toeing the fine line between not doing anything and getting enough done so that it seems like I actually did something today. It's difficult, but I figure if I get three shows archived today, I'll be good. Anyway, that's not the reason I'm updating. No I have a much more interesting reason for updating.
Did you know you could feel the back of your thighs? I didn't, at least not until today. I took my second kick boxing class last night, and while there wasn't any point where I thought I was going to puke, I'm feeling the effects today. It's good though, all this pain and drinking two bottles of water in one sitting. As Allison told me last year, in a emasculating and "god aren't you just the biggest idiot" way, pain is a part of a good work out. Unless it's ballet, but as I told my mum after the first class, there's nothing like ballet (other than ice skating and gymnastics) in the real world. So bring it on, bitch.
Okay, now the real reason I'm updating today. Back in January Lily Allen accidentally sent Ricky Wilson a topless picture of herself. I find this story both highly disturbing and highly amusing at the same time. Highly disturbing because why would you send anyone a topless picture of yourself when you're a celebrity and the person it's being sent to isn't your significant other, but highly amusing because it just is. So that's my celebrity story for the month. The fact that it's about two of my favourite artists, completely coincidental.
Finally here's a quote from a 1985 interview with Mike Watt and D. Boon of the Minutemen. I find it hilarious, but that's because I'm weird.

[The two had been discussing why people had been dying in Central America and Watt had stated that one of the reasons was rascism. Now the quote]
Boon: But they weren't Spanish. The Spanish married all the women and had all the children. The just killed the braves and married the women.
Watt: That's not racism, huh?
Boon: Well, the English did it a lot better. They just murdered everybody in front of them.

Paranoid Ravings

So here's just a little glimpse into the paranoia that dwells in my head:
I have a stats tracker on my Blogger blog that keeps track (surprise, surprise) of everyone who visits my blog. Most people stay for no seconds, but some people stay for a minute or so. I always check those people who stay for a minute or so, just to see where they're from and what parts of my blog they were checking out. Granted the stats tracker isn't too, too in depth, so I really only know what page a person started on and what page they left on. However the other day when I was checking my hit counter (I use Site Meter in case you're wondering) I noticed that someone from my university had been at my blog for one minute and thirteen seconds. That kind of freaked me out I'll be honest, especially considering where they started (Nov. 2008) and ended (this month). I know on the LJ version of this blog there's at least one person from school who reads it (there may be more but they aren't my friend) but outside of that there's no real way to check who the hell is reading my blog. Being all paranoid and stuff, I looked up the IP address I was given by Site Meter. Turns out it was a library computer. Really I just hope whoever was reading my Blogger blog didn't figure out who's writing this. Or doesn't know me and therefore would be unable to figure out who's writing this because there are some people who I would prefer never found out about this blog. I'm weird like that.

Two Weeks of News

Sorry for the long ass break in updates. In an effort to keep my blog emo free I haven't been updating as much. There's been much emoness in the past two weeks (life shattering realizations can kind of make a girl sad) and work has drained me of the rest of my energy. Yes folks, I'm back at WPFW archiving shows for the Minott. Granted there's been a shit ton of craziness happening behind the scenes at WPFW, mostly changes in staff and crazy hooha like that. Still, it's the same thing I did last summer, I'm just not doing it five days a week. Also, I would like to point out that it takes a crazy short amount of time for CNN and tourists to get really frustrating/annoying. CNN has gone from semi-bullshitty to really insane bullshitty in just a year and I blame it on the old media's discovery of social networking sites. As great as Facebook and Twitter are for keeping up to date with friends and family, I don't really trust it for news reporting. It's like relying on The Mirro for accurate news on DW. As for the tourists, it's the same complaints as always: They don't know how to walk up escalators, their kids run wild on the Metro, and they don't know how to share the side walk. I'm all for people visiting the sites in DC and appreciating the history and all that, but for christ's sake I need to get to my stop and you're in my way!
So in an effort to work out a lot of my pent up frustration towards certain people, I've decided to take up kickboxing. I took my first class yesterday and right now I'm so sore I can't move properly. We started the class with six minutes of jump roping (can't do that very well) and ended the class with six minutes of jump roping (really couldn't do that). There were leg squats and push-ups (and explosive push-ups) and jumping jacks and curl-ups and a lot of punching. I didn't feel my abs until early this morning, but the squats were almost immediate. Really, everything is just incredibly sore. And I'll be doing it all over again on Tuesday. I've gone crazy obviously.

Money, Sex...Cat

Well it seems that the pop culture juggernaut known as Twilight has finally lured me into its evil trap. Yes folks, I watched it and am still laughing. The great thing is that I took notes! So here they are, incoherant and not always in complete sentences.

• awful voice overs
• they're suppose to be in high school? all of them? seriously?
• awful emoness acting makes me sad
• robert pattinson, not so bad though, still laughable, but not as bad as kristen stewart
• oh god the contacts of doom!
• we are made of wood...balsa wood
• "you don't say hi to me"...or make eye contact
• this dialogue is amazing...ly awful and stilted, except for robert b/c he can act kind of
• edward: over protective stalker/psycho
• can't decide if this is more or less ridiculous than logan's run
• "money, sex, money, sex...cat"
• how do you grow up and not know about vampires? seriously? i mean they have one on seasame street for christ's sake
• not only does this movie hurt my soul, but the music hurts my soul too
• pattison can't always keep control of his american accent, and it's so cute when he slips :D
• "here comes the human!"
• jasper is constipated
• normal couples don't try and dance to claire de lune [because it's basically impossible, given that there's no clear beat or time signature, and I'm fairly certain it's in some weird time signature anyway]
• well that was creepy as fuck [Edward suddenly appearing in Bella's room for longer than two seconds]
• characters i like: dad, evil vampires (aka the people i'm not suppose to like)
• no! not muse, don't use muse during a baseball game!
• competitive vampire baseball: much cooler than normal baseball
• yay mormon doctor!
• i can't be bothered, this movie is too stupid
• i hope they pay for the damages done to that studio
• while edward sucks out the venom in the backgroud: yay fire! yay fire!
• i can't finish my sentences either! not only can't i leave you, i can't...i can't...:acts all flustered:
• prom? seriously? god this movie...can't finish the sentence
• they really can't dance, can they...:sigh: it's like the end of logan's run: stupid and pointless
• pattison's earnestness makes this whole thing so much more painful
• nice ending though (love the evil vampires)

By the way, I'm going to be working two days a week at WPFW. Wish it was more, but we'll see if I can fanagle some more days out people other than Gloria. Still two days out of the house is better than none. So yeah, that's about it for me. Went to see Elvis Costello last night and he played "Brilliant Mistake" which immediately made me think of David Morrissey, but otherwise not much has been going on for the past few days. Until next time (probably next Thursday, we shall see).

Honey, I'm BAAAAAAAAACK

So technically speaking it's between three weeks since my last non-emo update. I do realize that's a bit of a lie (I mean when was the last time I wasn't being seriously emo? I can't remember is the correct answer), but we're going to go with that standard because if I was to be honest it's been...well it's been a very long time since I wasn't at least mildly emo. So now for some non-emo-ness, I promise.

Header 1: University of Westminster Might Actually Happen :D
So since the last proper post on this blog, I arranged a meeting with IAS and spoke with the head of the program this past Thursday. Turns out his biggest concern was the fact that I mentioned that I was depressed. Once he found out it was over a boy (yet another grown man telling me what asses men are) he wasn't so concerned. Didn't mention that I'm going into therapy partially because of said boy, nor did I mention the fact that I have SAD, but I actually know how to handle SAD so I'm not too concerned at the moment. I was mostly just really relieved to hear that Mr. Musick (I kid you not) is more than willing to step up to bat for me and seems really positive that I'll be accepted. Of course all of this means that I can now start worrying about the application process and writing 300 to 500 words about "why I wish to join the Study Abroad Programme." :sigh: My life can be so difficult at times ;)

Header 2: Dear God, I Have All This News
So in the weeks since I went on hiatus, I've been collecting news articles like a bandit. This is mostly because some really interesting news has cropped up that I wish to comment on, and even though I'm going to be recording a demo show (for U of W, don't ya know) using most of these articles, I feel I should point them out for you, my wonderful readers. So here we go:
Blur announce that they're planning US and European dates for some time in the future. While I'm not exactly "for" this whole Blur reuniting thing, if they do come to the US, I will pay exorbitant amounts of money to see them. I'm hypocritical and crazy like that.
Americans will actually get to see the Doctor Who specials before they become redundant. BBC America has finally gotten the rights to DW, which means I'll actually get to rewatch the already aired specials, and probably see the unaired ones too, before I'm fifty, which is really good. I'm also very excited about new Torchwood and all of this being aired around the same time. My brain may explode, but it will be from dorky happiness instead of sad insanity.
In another piece of Blur related news, the band will be coming out with a Blur primer for the uninitiated. I'm pretty sure I could download most, if not all, of the tracks mentioned from Zune from their original albums and have the same experience as buying the compilation. Still, it's a nice way for the timid to get to know the band while also potentially earning the band a nice chunk of change. Yay capitalism.
For some inexplicable reason, the tabloids thought that the Kaiser Chiefs were being dropped by their label. This is not true, obviously. I'm fairly certain t'Chiefs are the biggest name on the B-Unique label and dropping them would be more than idiotic. However I am very pleased to hear that Whitey is going to be a dad. I don't know why that makes me happy, but it does.
I'm not really into video games. I don't have the right kind of coordination for it. However, I love Guitar Hero and Rock Band, so we all know that I'm going to want the latest version of Guitar Hero. And not just because it has The Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Muse, Kaiser Chiefs, the Killers, and David Bowie. No I want it because it has Coldplay ;D
Speaking of the Arctic Monkeys, they're going to be releasing an album soonish. In fact it's going to be released on the second day of school (also known as August 25th.) I'm very pleased, to say the least, since it's been a really long f-ing time since they released an album and I miss being able to mercilessly mock them for being obvious award bait. That's all I can say about that really. Though I hope Sean "Puffy, whatever the hell his latest nickname is" Combs doesn't have any actual involvement. There have been rumours ya know.
Finally, the Cribs will eventually be releasing an album, in my estimation this winter, based on how long it's taken them to record the damn thing, and Ashes to Ashes has been renewed for another series/season which makes me very happy since I never want it to end.

Header 3: All the Strange Things I've Watched in the Past Month
Since I've had way too much free time on my hands since coming home from school (way, waaaaaay too much free time) I've taken it upon myself to watch some movies/shows that I feel I need to see before I die. Hence why I've watched all of Life on Mars and Logan's Run. By the way, if you've ever thought "hey, Michael York was pretty good in that Three Musketeers movie, I should watch Logan's Run", don't. It's awful and an hour too long. However it's so incredibly bad that it's good in a weird way. But still an hour too long.
Another one of the movies I've watched recently is The Shining. My dad is a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick and so I kind of automatically assumed he would love The Shining. Not so much. Mum likes and Sophs hasn't actually seen it all the way through, which I found to be kind of odd since she's the cinephile of the family. I really liked the film though, mostly because it's allowed me to introduce a new strange mannerism into my conversations: Tony (aka Danny's imaginary friend). Of all the strange and wonderfully over used imagery The Shining has given the world, I'm really surprised no one has picked up on Tony. I think that was my favourite part of the entire movie. I'm just sad I already knew all the twists and scary bits (thanks pop culture) and none of it phased me really. Except Tony. Tony was great :D

So that's it. Set lists for Cake and the White Rabbits will be up as soon as I've figured out all the song titles.

This Is Not a Come Back

This is just the desperate need to rant like a mofo.
This is a very long story. It starts with my mum's near mental break down last fall and her going back into therapy. Actually, it started well before then, but the less time I have to cover the better. Anyway, after my mum started seeing a shrink again something rather important came to light: My grandmother probably irreparably fucked my mum up by being a narcissist. Now I'm not saying this lightly or in any kind of jest. My grandmother's a narcissist and being the child of a narcissist does some pretty fucked up shit to your psyche. You can become a narcissist or, like my mum, constantly need to please everyone and be perfect. Obviously there are other ways to deal with your mother being a narcissist, but that was how my mum dealt with it and why she nearly had a mental breakdown last fall. However by discovering and working through the issues that arise from discovering that your mother is a narcissist, my mum also figured out something I've known for 3 years or so: my dad's a completely needy self-centred ass. He's not a narcissist, but pretty damn close. He's also a hypocrite but that has less to do with being a needy self-centred ass and more do with his parents and having socialists sympathies while also being a really good corporate lawyer (yeah, he's just even more fucked up than my mum and that's not easy to be.)
Because dad's a needy self-centred bastard and mum is trying to be her own person, there's been a shitload of tension in the house recently. Now I've had my issues with dad for quite awhile, but I've been completely alone in my beliefs that he's a hypocritical needy ass. On the other hand Sophs (the sister who's dad's favourite) thinks mum (now that she's "seen the light") and I are just complete bitches who don't understand dad and need to get off our high horses (or at least that's the vibe I'm getting.) Now I've seen a divide in this house since, well for as long as I've known that my dad's just a complete ass. There are those of us who express our emotions and opinions (me and mum) and those of us who bottle it up and then go all ragey-mcrage when it gets to be too much (dad and Sophs.) [Apologies for the random linkage, I had a drink and I really can't hold my liquor] However I might have exasperated that divide tonight by basically saying that Sophs was on dad's side and against mum, to Sophs. Granted I was pushed by Sophs into saying that after she said some shit about getting out of this house, but I regret having opened my mouth anyway. It just makes things more complicated than necessary and they're already complicated enough as it is. However I'll be working through all this starting next week with a psychologist (actually just a social worker, but that's good enough given the circs) other than Farber (the creepy, creepy old man*.) I might also get to work out my pent up issues with the buttmuncher (otherwise known as the ex) which I'm happy for. The long and short of all this is as follows: Narcissism fucks with everything and Nora from A Doll's House is in no way a narcissist. A real narcissist would never have married someone like Torvald. 0_o
:sigh: Hopefully The IT Crowd will come tomorrow and I can spend all day just watching that. Or something.
*When I was still dating the buttmuncher, mum saw Farber at the pysch office and told him that I had a boyfriend. He was extremely pleased because he thought I was using him as some sort of replacement for a real boyfriend. I've been creeped out ever since I can't see him any more. Unfortunately my new therapist works at the same place Farber does, so there's a pretty good chance I'll see him. And crush his ego. But when I tried to talk to him last summer about my dad issues he blew them off and kept pushing me to get a boyfriend. And we all know how well that worked out. So he'll just have to deal.

Self-Imposed Exile

I think I'm going to pull a Garbo and so will be disappearing from both blogs, Twitter, and Facebook for a period of time. Not that I've been updating any of those things very often, but Facebook in particular has me agitated and I really don't have anything to say. So with that I'll leave you lot with a bunch of links that I've been meaning to post. No snarky commenting though.

• Dollhouse renewed for the win!
• An interview with Kathy Foster of the Thermals that contains the best description of the Cribs known to man:

  They’re from Wakefield, which is outside of Leeds...It’s three brothers plus Johnny Marr. The guys that sing and play guitar and bass are twins, and then the younger brother plays drums. They’re getting really big in the UK...People just go crazy for them...singing every word and pointing at them.

• Kate Nash goes to LA to pick a producer. Whilst there she also plans on making up for lost time with BF Ryan, which I don't begrudge her at all*.
• The BBC Trust checks to make sure BBC Radio 2 and 6Music are just really pointless.

*Seriously I don't. I'm not being sarcastic in any way. Kate and Ryan are one of the few couples in this world don't make me seethe with rage. So I don't begrudge her whatsoever.

Updates from Purgatory

So I've been a neglectful blogger. I haven't updated in two weeks and my last entry was not really an entry. Needless to say I owe this blog an update. Thing is I'm finding it hard to write about anything. I've done jack shit in the past two weeks other than take exams and watch British crime procedurals/sci-fi shows (more on that in a moment.) My family continues to be more crazy than I thought possible and Facebook continues to annoy me with it's continual need to remind me that certain people exist. I look at my front page and question why certain people are on there, why I continue to be friends with them when all they do is annoy me. Eventually I'll stop being lazy and get rid of those people from my friend list, but not any time soon. I'm far too lazy.
So British crime procedurals/sci-fi shows. In the past week I've watched both series of Life on Mars (which by the way was awesome) and I'm almost update with Ashes to Ashes. They are both amazing and I've listened to more David Bowie in the past week than I ever would have thanks to those shows. So yeah, I'm quite pleased about that. I mean I'm spending most of every day in my room, but for my sanity that's probably better. Onwards and upwards to my family.
Oh my family. They're all a bunch wack jobs. Every time I come home I re-realize all over again how mentally fucked up they are and every time I have to remind myself to act like a civil person and scream every time they open their mouths. And so I spend as much time as I legitimately can away from them because if I don't by the end of the summer I will lose my mind.
Now more important things. I don't have the GPA (if we're going by the letter) to study abroad at University of Westminster. I've sent a plea to international academic service people seeing if there's anything I can do to still go there, but I'm currently look at other programs. I'm looking in Wales for god sake (no offence to any Welsh readers. You're all really lovely.) I haven't given up on studying abroad, I'm just slowly giving up on studying at the University of Westminster. Which makes me sad and waiting for IAS to respond my email is making me more than a bit anxious, but this is what happens when you fuck up. And I'll be the first to admit that I fucked up. But I know I have back ups and I can make excellent pleas on my behalf. It just makes me sad and disappointed in myself. I could go on, but that's just boring and you all know how much I hate being boring.
All right well that's about it for me. Umm, I don't know when I'll be updating, probably when I hear from either IAS, WETA, or WAMU (yay volunteer positions!). Until then.

Really Random 10 Questions

1. Do you believe in good and/or bad luck?
I do believe in both good and bad luck. I also believe in karma and fate, which good and bad luck play into.

2. Do you believe there is one man/woman luckier than all the rest?
No. Just people who are luckier than me at the moment.

3. When was the last time you considered yourself lucky?
Not for many moons. Over two months in fact.

4. What is the most unlucky thing to ever happen to you?
Christ I don't know. I don't think there's a single unlucky thing/event that happened to me, more like a string of rather unlucky years.

5. Where do you think luck (good or bad) comes from?
Karma and fate. Mostly karma though.

1. If you could give out Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress and Best Director Oscars to any movies (not necessarily all from the same year) to people/films that haven't won, what would they be?
I would give Cary Grant and Fred Astaire best Actors for most of their movies, cuz they totally deserve them. Otherwise I've not got an opinion really.

2. What is your favorite genre of writing (short stories, novels, nonfiction...)?
I like Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and nonfiction about British history and pop music history.

3. Are there any CDs to which you know every word? Movies?
Employment, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much, Under the Iron Sea...I could go on really, but I won't. As for movies, no. Never Mind the Buzzcocks episodes, yes.

4. If you could write and cast your own movie, what would it be about and who would you cast?
I don't know what it would be about but I would cast Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Johnny Depp. And Jo Brand for no particular reason. Also Bill Bailey and Phil Jupitus, and all their scenes would be together. Yeah, that would be a really strange movie.

5. What's the best song to wake you up? Put you to sleep?
Best song to wake me up would be..."Darts of Pleasure" or "Na Na Na Na Na." Or Lily Allen's cover of "Oh My God" or "Never Gonna Happen." However music doesn't really put me to sleep, so I don't know.

Decision Time

I've decided, for no particular reason other than that I have, that the man I end up with for keeps (ie get married to) will be a very strange amalgamation of the men I watch on the tellie/computer screen and the men I listen to. Which is why I doubt I'll ever marry an American :knocks on wood: because you can't be a strange amalgamation of x number of British men if you're American. I just doesn't work. Anyway that's what I've decided. I should get back to studying now. I won't, but I should.
Edit: I should add I've also decided that the future hubbie will be older than me. Even if it's just a couple of years, he'll be older than me. Now back to QI where I will continue to feed my older-man crush.

I Feel Fine, Think I'll Go For a Walk Now

For anyone worrying, I'm fine. Stressed to the extreme, but no longer losing my faith in humanity. I'm also no longer furious with the world, just mildly irritated. As for those of you on LJ who have commented on recent entries, I know I haven't replied, but that's because I'm just a horrible person who finds communication to be very awkward, no matter the format. So, thank you to all of you for your words of support and advice. As I often say, I'm really just a horrible person. I'm surprised no one has figured this out yet, so I'll just keep saying it: I'm a horrible person.
What's stressing me right now is the lack of studying I require as compared to nearly everyone I know. It's stressing me because this sort of thing always stresses me. Not being normal in certain arenas stresses me and so we have Nore stressing about not studying. Of course I'm also stressing about exams and packing which is normal and then of course we have grades. I'm feeling more pyscho this year than I did last year, but then again I also don't have a pyscho as a roommate, so there's kind of a trade off. I'm torturing myself instead of someone else torturing, though I'm not sure which is worse. :sigh: I really do hate the end of the year.

Feeling of the Moment

I just want to get this off my chest: I currently hate almost the everyone. I'm including the entire world in this definition, which might seem a bit ridiculous, but take into account that it's festival season (and has been for quite awhile) and you've got at least a 1/16th (wild guesstimate) of the world with whom I'm at least very annoyed with. Then take into account the number of people I know who know the ex and that's another very small percentage of people who may cause annoyance (damn you Facebook, damn you to hell.) Then of course we add in all couples on campus and we've got yet another small percentage that irk me. Put all of those small percentages together we've got about, I dunno, another rather small but significant percentage of people who I hate right now. I blame stress and my subconscious (more on that in a bit). Still, there's a great number you people who I hate right now and I just needed to write it down. I also blame my sprained ankle. It only adds fire to my anger. Still one my persevere despite one's own inner turmoil.
Last night I had a dream where I got to yell and scream and smack the ex. Oddly enough another friend was there facilitating this whole thing, except he seemed to be on the ex's side, but it didn't really matter. The fact that I'm dreaming about him disturbs me to no end, but then Facebook (damn it's non-existent eyes) had to keep showing this photo of him with his slag. 'Course the only reason I knew it was him was because I clicked the damn thing. And this stupid sprained ankle thing makes me feel like an awkward idiot. Everything just seems to be going wrong and I can't stop it. I need something good to happen to me or I might just lose all my faith in life.

Zero

I'm so in love with this song, so I'm going to post the lyrics. Also, just as a side note, the way Karen O sings sometimes reminds me of things I don't talk about in my blog :cough:sex:cough:

"Zero" --- Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz

Shake it like a ladder to the sun
Makes me feel like a madman on the run
Find me, never, never far gone
So get your leather, leather, leather on, on, on, on

Your zero
What's your name?
No one's going to ask you
Better find out where they want you to go

Try and hit the spot
Get to know it in the dark
Get to know it whether you're
Crying, crying, crying, oh, oh
Can you climb, climb, climb higher?

Shake it like a ladder to the sun
Makes me feel like a madman on the run
No you're never, never far gone
So get your leather, leather, leather on, on, on, on

Your zero
What's your name?
No one's going to ask you
Better find out where they want you to go

Try and hit the spot
Get to know it in the dark
Get to know it whether you're
Crying, crying, crying, oh, oh
Can you climb, climb, climb higher?

Was it the cure?
Shellshock!
Was it the cure?
Hope not!
Was it the cure?
Shellshock!
Was it the cure?
What's your name?

Your zero
What's your name?
No one's going to ask you
Better find out where they want you to go

Try and hit the spot
Get to know it in the dark
Get to know it whether you're
Crying, crying, crying, oh, oh
Can you climb, climb, climb higher?

Was it the cure?
Shellshock!
Was it the cure?
Hope not!
Was it the cure?
Shellshock!
Was it the cure?
Hope not!

What's your name?
What's your name?
What's your name?
What's your name?
What's your name?
What's your name?
What's your name?

Life Imitates Life

I'm in a goodly amount of pain right now. You see I twisted my ankle and well, that hurts I'm discovering. I can't really bend my ankle in any way. The only reason I'm writing about this is because, while I was on stage (which is where I twisted my ankle) I had an almost identical reaction to the idea of fainting that I did the last time I fainted. Namely, when I started feeling very flush and the lights suddenly got very bright my brain told, "We will persevere through this, and we will not collapse dammit." Of course it didn't help that I was in the middle of singing the premier of an original composition by a) the head of the department and b) my theory prof (same person, two roles.) And just like last time, I fainted. Of course last time I didn't do something horrible to my ankle, but it's amusing in a macabre way. Now I have to finish this damn research paper or I'll be royally screwed. Also I would just like to end this entry with following piece of information: I lieu of an ACE bandage, I'm currently using a pair of panty hose. Hurrah ingenuity.

Edit: First I realize that the title of this entry doesn't make sense unless you're in my head, so I will explain: My favourite lead singer had a habit of breaking one of his ankles every year. He hasn't done it recently, but when I realized that I had sprained my ankle, it was like "Ha, I did a slightly less debilitating version of what he's done in the past." Hence (my) life imitating (R's) life.
Today however was quite amusing. A friend of mine, Sam, was in the balcony for the performance and for some reason thought my fainting was some creative/artistic choice made by Dr. Long, ruined by my horrible acting. I laughed really hard and then got to tell my story to my entire theory class. I suspect I'm going to be explaining my hobbling around for another couple of days before the whole music department knows and therefore I don't have to explain it anymore. Still, I'm all stiff upper lip and carrying on like always. 'Cuz I'm secretly British.

Happiness Is

This is just a short observation that I wanted to write down before I lost it: There are three things in this world that make me truly happy

• Truly great music
• Great TV (I just finished watching a new episode of Bones with Stephen Fry, which is why I'm writing this in the first place)
• A great book (both fiction and non-fiction)

I don't need much more than that. In fact the only item I would add would be great friends. So that's it. Life is good right now and I can't really ask for much more than that, nor would I dare to.

Sad Songs and Waltzes

I'm stressed. And I'm worried. For the first time this year I'm purposefully blowing off an assignment because I just can't handle doing it right now. I don't think I'm going to just not do it, I'm just not doing it tonight. And that worries me because I haven't done that this year and since entering college I've generally tried to avoid that kind of behaviour. It was a behaviour I left behind in high school, or at least a behaviour I tried to leave behind in high school. But this project is 1/7 of my grade and I'm not incapable of doing it. Which is why I'm stressing. This semester has to go well for me and thus far my general feeling is that it's not. I know I'm not doing particularly well in Classics, I have a good chance of pulling my grade up to a B in Asian Civ, absolutely no clue in music history (thanks for getting those papers back Roach) and so-so in Theory. I need all of these classes to be Bs. It might not be possible in Classics, unless I do fabulously on the final and actually turn in the paper for Troy and there's a very good chance of getting a B in Asian Civ. I could be doing a lot better in music history than I currently think I am, but since I haven't gotten any of my papers back I can't be sure. Which gets us back to theory. I did really well on the first test and so-so on the second test. Past analysis and comp projects lead me to believe that I'll do fairly well on the comp project, as long as I don't get myself to far into something crazy, and I'd do well on the analysis project if I was turning it in on time. But I'm not. And so I stress. Until this project is turned in, I won't be calm. Quite frankly, until I know that I have a 3.0, I won't be calm. I'll be worried and stressed. None of which is conducive to doing well. It's a vicious little circle I live in. A vicious never ending circle.