( Religous-y rant that isn't worth reading but I needed to write. )

 

Anyway, for something cheerful:

• playing chimes is fun, even if I'll probably never be a chimes master
• I'm glad I can actually make people feel better by giving them hugs
• someone made these wonderful snow animals outside eco. There was a T-rex first, and now there is a stegosaurus and what appears to be baby dinosaurs between them, a llama or giraffe, and a chicken. It's lovely
• I have wonderful friends
• Riccardo is learning to make these delicious tiny apple tart-pies and is letting us eat them as he tries to get them right. It is goooood.
• Thee world is dichotomic and that is what makes it interesting

Hope your day is filled with win!

Why yesterday was a good day:

- Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out

- Scorpy!

- My side your side my side your side

- The Machine

- fresh eggnog, now available with hand sanitizer

- eating Mike's possibly shortbread cookies so he won't eat them anymore... because giving out his birthday cake wasn't enough

- lunch with Sam and breakfast-for-dinner with Eco

- handing in the first assignment of finals week

- Snake can survive guns, robots, and microwaves

- marriage proposals are only acceptable in battle when the girl is proposing

- I have Haydn cds!

And now, there is snow. And essays. And studying. Oh Joy.

I got back to eco house yesterday and life is good in many ways. Many of my friends are back, which is joy itself. Already there has been nonsensical, rambling explanations, pointless running, and contemplated evisceration. Speaking of which, I think the new freshmen will love it here. They have already decided a giant squid will attack us, decided it would be awesome if we all went out and bought machetes for a group photo, and are burning things.

A group of us went to jump on the suspension bridge. It was fun~ except for the bit where I fell down or the bit where I ran into the side of the bridge. My arm is bruised now, but that's okay. Also, i am out of practice jumping properly, so now it hurts to walk down hill. Yippee.

I got my envrionmental econ class added! Huzzah and cheers! I finally have a complete schedule.

My roommate has a hedgehog now. It's name is Tacchi. He is very antisocial, delightfully nocturnal, and loves he wheel. Lets see how this goes

In other good news, the dining halls got better coffee! Yaaaaay!. In other bad news, they are still brewing it terribly. Boooo!

Random facts:
- Pomegrante makes the world go round. (also, it's odd a fruit can be both a symbol of fertility and keep you in hades for 6 months)
- pick up sticks is an underrated game
- band does the best promotions on campus
- my friends are awesome

That's all for now. Lets see if I update sooner than a month this time...

Things I learned yesterday:

1. Hugs are a legitimate form of torture. Chris is notorious for his dislike of hugs. So of course Sam tries to hug him. He shoves her away and runs across the road to get away from her, and then half of the breakfast group jumps on him and holds him down so Sam can actually hug him. A couple cars slowed down as they passed with "wtf, is he there a fight?" looks on their faces. Twas funny.

2. Though I should know this already, bonfires are awesome. And now my hair smells like smoke, which is also awesome.

3. Peeps taste good if roasted to the point where the outsides are caramelized and the insides are melted, apparently. Otherwise they just burn, and then flake off the burns, and burn again.

4.francium bombs are epic. Serously, watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6qj7OX298Y
IS THAT NOT SO PRETTY?!

5. There are limits to how much work I can do in a day. Damn.

6. It is better to base your project around a carbon calculator that works instead of own that says four people in a large building have a smaller footprint than if they were in a small one. I think it may be calculating something else.

7. Hearing about other people's relationships is still more boring than hell. Actually, maybe it's boring as purgatory. Hell seems like it would be interesting, just not in anyway you'd like. Unless it is all false advertising and the main form of torture is boredom. Hmmm, must ask thatdamneddame ...

8. This week will be insanely busy. Sadness.

9. Coffee gets me through more than it should.

So, Eco-House is playing assassins, because we are psycho like that. Every assassin has a target, who they kill with socks. Yes, socks. You cannot kill anyone else including throwing socks at your attacker to defend yourself. Shields can protect you from socks, as does holding on to another person besides your attacker. Rooms are safe unless you and your assassin are both invited in, classrooms are out of bounds, and your target must be awake. Those are the only rules.

Guild-Master Peter said the game usually lasted a month or more. We ended it yesterday at around midnight, making it almost exactly 120 hours.
It was epic. There was a chain reaction where four people died within a minute after killing their target before the final showdown between the last two assassins standing. One of those assassins didn't realize it was down to the last two and was completely unprepared. I didn't make it that long. I was killed 36 and a half hours into the game after realizing too late if a arm is shut in a door, the sock in the arms hand can still hit you. I didn't care all that much because it meant I didn't have to be completely paranoid leading up to my prelim, but the door didn't like it at all. It's fixed now, though.

It was fun, in a "I'm so paranoid I'm thinking in intersecting ellipses" kind of way. We're thinking of doing another round.

The curb in front of our house has been sinking for years, leading to a near constant puddle going on lake in front of our driveway. We used to slide around on it while we waited for the bus in winter and jump over it on the way back. After years of badgering the town to fix the curb and lay mosquito-breeding Lake Boisvert to rest, they ripped up the curb yesterday. We now have a sizable trench in front of our driveway. As it's raining, I think it may even be a moat. So if you were going to storm our house and steal our tea, now would not be a good time.

jackoweskla and the parents are in NYC right now seeing a specialist. With any luck, he should have some good ideas of how to help her, seeing as he had the most indepth idea of what problems she is facing in the first place. It would be awesome if does. Otherwise, they missed a perfectly good excuse to walk all over the neighbors' yards and braved driving in the dreaded streets of NYC for nothing. That better not happen.

WALL-E is a mac! Take that Microsquish!!

Go see! Go see, go see, gosee, goseegoseegosse!

Unless you can't cope with songs from Hello, Dolly in your head. Then you should avoid it.

But EVE! And the bug! And John and Mary and the pool! And WALL-E! And fire extinguishers! And the short history of Art! Wheeeeeee!

At last! I am done! No longer shall I be forced to endure the long hours of a New York regents! No longer shall I fill in your bubbles with a number two pencil and sign your statement that I did indeed have no prior knowledge of the questions on this test nor received help during it. From now on, my tests are determined by the eccentricities of my professors and would be employers, not how well I can utilize my reference table. Take that!

Victory is mine!!!!!

Dear News media,
   
What the fuck do you think you are doing? I don't give a damn about half the crap you ask the presidential candidates. I want to know important things like "what do you think needs to be accomplished in the next four years and how" not why they know x person, if they can drink, and how is there fashion sense patriotic and/or slutty. Stop turning my country's political process into a fucking tabloid and tell me something I need to know.

No love,
me
------------
Dear presidential candidates,

Thank you for having a sense of humor.

Cheerfully yours,
me
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Dear Trinity,

Go to sleep already. Now.

Yourself
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In other news, I'm going to Cornell. Go me.

After 18 years of being told she has a mild form or ADD, Lauren has gotten diagnosed with CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder). In summary, the reason she doesn't pay attention much in class, has to be looking right at you to understand you, and cannot understand anyone on the phone is because her brain can't understand the sounds going in her ear a bunch of the time.

We all thought this was freaking awesome. We spent most of the period geeking out over the weirdness of brain disorders, the loveliness of having doctors believe you and actually explain what is wrong, and being able to get special hearing-device-thingys in orange and zebra-stripped. This is why i love my friends.