Lists of Stuff

Reading List:
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown [alternate subtitle: TJ's adventures in Orlando]

Movie List:
Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly
Invisible Boy (failed attempt to watch Forbidden Planet )
Yes Man with Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel
When Worlds Collide with
Waitress with Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines
White Noise 2: The Light with Nathan Fillion and Kaytee Sackhoff
Outing Riley bunch of people plus Nathan Fillion
The Giant Gila Monster with Don Sullivan

Television List (various episodes of...)
Star Trek: TOS and DS9
3rd Rock from the Sun
Boston Legal (holy wow I like this show)
Mad Men (which Amanda is sending me the dvd's of in..5.4.3....)

And of course....BATTLESTAR GALACTICA FINAL SEASON PREMIER IS TOMORROW!!!
And I'm kind of excited about that.

To Do Update

I've been at this "summer" thing for 20 days now. How is it going? Oh, its going allright...

1. Clean my house.
I keep cleaning the kitchen, only to turn around and cook dinner. I've tackled the living room, but that's about it.

2. Mega-Organizing.
Which means, of course, this is not even started. I guess the yard sale sort of counts, but not really.

3. Bird Training
videos and toys still have not arrived. Reducing the lighting from 7 hours to 5 hours has helped with the attitude and biting ALOT! Thank you internet people.

4. SCRAPBOOKING!!!!!!!
is daunting. I finally did two pages yesterday, but my printer is out of ink and all the extra stuff i bought is expired and dried out. Frick! Also, 3 billion cute pictures of my baby brother, where to start?!?!?

5. I plan to read this summer. Books. Novels. Space-Operas. The kind you read for fun, with no homework-related guilt. Lots of books.
nope.

6. I'll leave for the Great State of Misery probably on the 26th of June, or maybe the 20th...or something. I haven't really nailed it down yet. I'll be scrapbooking with my mom on the 29th and 30th at least, though.

A Storm of Comments!!!

The craziness must stop! AAahhhh!!! Three whole comments in as many weeks!!! Of course, I just found out, as I neglect to check my gmail very often, and these are on older posts. My responses:

Dear Baba Wayo,

Unfortunately, I gave up on the tablet PC. It is sitting in a box until I get around to scouring it of personal info and selling it at a yard sale. GoBinder wasn't really the problem in the end. The constant noise level of the fans during class, and the feeling like I was staring into a tiny window to write on just got to be too much. Also, it did not effect reducing my backpack load, since I can't download my textbook onto it and still READ my textbook while taking notes.

Short Story: It just became a pain in the ass, and a huge disappointing waste of money. People thought it was cool, though...*sigh*


Dear Beakerann,

The title of the book is called, I shit you not:

"Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle"

Watermelon pickle sounds more appealing each and every time I read the words...mmmmmmmm

Dear Stewie (here's Stewie Blog, can he train Rigel to type without chewing off the keys?!?!?!)

All is well, and Rigel sends his thanks for belated hatchday wishes. I haven't been around Birdboard much since I've been busy, except that I put up a long-ish post looking for help with ants, which quickly got buried and ignored. I have some other questions I need to get around to asking, which I will try to keep short (ha!). I'm hesitant to keep posting questions, since I don't post *look what my birdy did cute* stuff there since I have a blog for that... it makes me seem a bit needy and not very fun. In my own mind, anyway.

To Do List: Summer

This past week, I joined my classmates in ritualistic self-torture. We shoved the knowledge of 4 months into our poor brains, and then yesterday we sat down and turned our heads, so that the knowledge would oooozzzeee out of our ears and onto the Sacred Final. Some of it ended up on the floor.

And then I slept for 14 hours.

The results are partially in, and I have a B in Calculus 3. Physics is still pending, but I woke up this morning with my right hand representing magnetic field, current, and force, and then I realized that I mentally had the field going out of the page on the final. Fucks.

I have plans, and half a summer to get around to them.

1. Clean my house.
For real, people, this place is a general pigsty, and I have no clean socks.

2. Mega-Organizing.
Now that the cleaning is done, I'm all into giving shit away and discovering stuff I've been looking for (like socks) and re-discovering sentimental items (like underwear). That box of cables and that pile of cables and that device over there, they need to find each other. The closets aren't exactly overflowing, but its not like I can find anything in there.

3. Bird Training
Since I'm out of school for a few months, it is time to give a certain unrestrained parrot a few lessons. He's got "be adorable" and "bite me" down already. I think we'll start with "stop shitting on me" and move up to "do not chew on the laptop power cord." We'll see.

4. SCRAPBOOKING!!!!!!!
I am very excited. This will be a scrapbook for my mom, sort of a Mother's Day/Birthday gift that she has to help me with. I got this pretty paisley paper (btw I HATE paisley and this stuff is gorgeous, so there you go) and punch-out set. I still need to find a book, but I'll place the pictures and leave room for Mom to do the journaling. FUN!!

5. Speaking of books.
I plan to read this summer. Books. Novels. Space-Operas. The kind you read for fun, with no homework-related guilt. Lots of books.

6. HOoooommmmeee Home on The Range...
I'll leave for the Great State of Misery probably on the 26th of June, and return to Big Texass on the 6th or 7th of July. Becky wants to go bowling in KC for her birthday, and after that the whole trip is up in the air. Mostly there will be food, coffee, alcohol, and blowing shit up. Probably in that order.

There goes half the summer....bye-bye fun...

7. Back to School
I registered for Technical Writing in the second summer term, and then it is back to school full-time in the Fall. Four courses, two with labs....no time for sleep.

Reflections

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle

Wow, I needed this today. I've had a pretty rotten day (week, month, etc.). I went to my local coffee shop for a sandwich and picked up a book off the shelf, thinking the sandwich would take awhile to be ready. I was wrong, the food came quick, but I still stayed for nearly an hour because the book was so good!

These poems made me feel sentimental, open. They are honest, humorous, and intense in their simplicity. I was halfway through and almost walked to the counter to ask if I could keep the book. I changed my mind, and returned it to the shelf. Everyone deserves to read this book, I can buy my own copy.

Enthralled

Another Day In The Life

So, I've spent a pleasant day lounging in the sun, enjoying the flower smell. Watching the hummingbirds, finishing a book, watching Outer Limits. *Sigh.

I had to be at the clinic at 7:30 this morning though. They acted like it was supposed to be an actual physical, but no, just a records review. Waste of time. Not that I minded not having to strip and all, because they kept asking me what this or that meant on my records. Ummm aren't you supposed to know that?? Idiots.

Currently reading : Cosmic Cocktails By Denise Little Release date: By 05 December, 2006

Random

Confessions of a Failed Mathlete
The first time I ever saw a math question about two trains approaching each other at different speeds, I drew a complete blank. In a white flash of panic I saw my brilliant academic future begin to slip away.
Do I ever know how that feels, we started Related Rates yesterday. Not going so well. Oh well, its not like its going worse than the rest of the term. Damn.

Quarantine
Yes, the government can still enforce quarantine & isolation.
Having a horrible and deadly disease will not get you enough pity for the rest of us to be okay with you giving it to everyone. Sorry.

Scientists have revealed details of the world's only known case of "semi-identical" twins.
They are the result of two sperm cells fertilising a single egg, which then divided to form two embryos - and each sperm contributed genes to each child.
Dude.

Morpho Towers--Two Standing Spirals
The body of the tower was made by a new technique called "ferrofluid sculpture" that enables artists to create dynamic sculptures with fluid materials. This technique uses one electromagnet, and its iron core is extended and sculpted.
You might remember the last ferrofluid image I posted about, a spikey black fluid. This is way way cooler, looks like a black spiral tree and it moves to music. There is video.

I was going to post more, but now I have to pee, and then go back to working on my bungled math work. I probably should've started my homework yesterday. I had a bad day, with a failed attempt at a seperations physical, getting my taxes done, and finding that the bird I've wanted to get has a hurt foot. So instead, I started reading Brother Odd at 4-ish. 8 hours later I was finished, and tired, and slightly happier.

I havn't been to the gym all week. I'm a bad bad girl. Ugh.

Sarah: I owe you an ice cream cake...please come over and eat the rest, before I do. Please.

Sure Can Smell the Rain

First, you must go watch 300 now. Go! I'll wait...

Okay. Awesome, right? Yup, me too, I loved it. I mean, damn. Every movie that has such excessive boobage should also include a minimum of 300 gleaming muscular men wearing nothing but capes and those underwear pants. King Leonidis also has very interesting teeth.

I'm still trying to remember the name of the very strange SF book I read many years ago, in which modern historians and scientists end up traveling back in time and helping the Spartans win at Thermopylae. It was strange.

Besides seeing the movie and the weather being great, Saturday kinda sucked. Michael's buddies threw him a little party because he's moving to another office. We played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. It dragged on forever. We quit. Un-fun. The thick juicy burgers I bought, burnt to charcoal by the grillmaster. I survived for 5 hours on ruffles and ranch dip before getting said coal-burger.

Today I made myself an egg-ina-hole for breakfast at noon. Drove over to the yardsale location and hung out for a few hours. Made $40. I have some paperwork to do tonight or I won't be able to quit my job. Also, a shadowbox for someone else in my shop. Glue gun + TJ = burn, so that should be fun. BSG is on tonight, I can't forget to watch that.

I'm hungry.

End.

Fire!

Sooo...yeah. RTFM on the fireplace please, there has to be a lever somewhere to let the smoke out. My house now smells like lingering stale smoke. This is a downgrade/upgrade from last night when it smelled thickly of firewood. We don't even have pokers or tiny shovels or anything.

I love you babe, but I told you that was a bad idea.

Meanwhile, I printed some awesome rocks from Pikes Peak onto my background paper, and printed maybe 30 pictures just from day one of last summer's vacation. So, tomorrow I can do some actual scrapbooking.

Oh!@ Also, I just finished reading False Memory by Dean Koontz. I now only have 5 of his books on my shelf that I have not read. Well, that I'm pretty sure I haven't read. My memory sucks and I'd have to get 2 or 3 chapters into it before I can be sure. I've also still not purchased Brother Odd and I really really want to read it.

Remaining unread on my shelf are: Mr. Murder, The Face, Tick Tock, The Eyes of Darkness, and Lightning

I have the Hiccups again

So, its 1am and I am NOT tired at all. I think I had 3 or 4 cups of coffee at IHOP about an hour ago. I'm gonna try to sleep anyway, but we'll see how that works out.

Anywhoo, we saw The Holiday tonight. It is, by far, the best movie I've seen lately. Not to say that The Fountain wasn't good, but this one made me laugh out loud, literally. That doesn't happen much.

Ohhh! Also I've noticed alot of the books I loved as a kid are being made into movies: Charlottes' Web, Bridge to Tarabithia, and How to Eat Fried Worms. We saw the preview for Bridge to Tarabithia tonight, and I'm really excited. I remember that was the first book that I cried at, or maybe it was Where the Red Fern Grows. Serious growing-up books. I read up to 10 books a week in the 6th grade, walking back and forth from the tiny public library. Because read well above my grade level I was exposed to certain mature subjects. I think it was really important in shaping me emotionally at that time, that my reading wasn't censored at all. I really regret that I havn't been able to read much in the last few years. I doubt I've read 10 books in the last year. I don't really forsee having any time to read soon either.

Counted Sorrows

For any Dean Koontz fans out there, I just found out he finally published The Book of Counted Sorrows.

From "The Mask"

Evil is faceless strangers,
living in distant neighborhood.
Evil has a wholesome, hometown face,
with merry eyes and an open smile.
Evil walks among us, wearing a mask
which looks like all our faces.

From "Cold Fire"

Nowhere can a secret keep
always secret, dark and deep,
half so well as in the past,
buried deep to last, to last.

Keep it in your own dark heart,
otherwise the rumors start.
After many years have buried
secrets over which you worried,
no confidant can then betray
all the words you didn't say.

Only you can then exhume
secrets safe within the tomb
of memory, of memory.

-------
In the real world
as in dreams,
nothing is quite
what it seems.

Good reading for my current mood. Except I just saw that he also published his next Odd Thomas novel, Brother Odd. So my mood is improved, but only a bit.

Book Quote

"I said-" Orca Cruz began.
He crunched his fingers down on the eye, shattering it. Something crome-yellow emerged in smoky wisps. A moment later Cruz felt the nerve agent infiltrate her lungs.
No one had to tell her it would be fatal.

Dude, guy gouged out his own eye and it was full of nerve agent

Slither? Eh, no.

Robert (an uber-fan of my glorious blogs) was asking if I have, or will be, watching the new movie Slither. I try to stay away from just those sorts of films. Which one was it where the bloody things spewed out of people's butts? I swear people were crap-birthing these nasty aliens. Something about dream catchers I think. Michael remembers. Only this Slither thing looks like it really wants to be a B-Movie.

I'm still hanging out in Florida for a couple more months. I can't wait to get back to the hubby in TX. Ugh! I can't believe I want to go back to Texass.

I should really be asleep about now, in preparation for a long day walking around the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. I'm kinda excited again, we'll see. I've spent my entire day today reading Absolution Gap, and I've only got...lets see...87 pages to go. It's been ages since it has taken me this long to read a book. I started it in January I think. I guess its just a point of pride for me to finish it before I go to bed tonight. I used to read entire 800 page novels in a day, often starting at 8am and finishing at 4am....which in my reckoning is a day since its less than 24 hours, so piss off :P

I am sitting rather awkwardly with my legs crossed and my laptop on my lap. Where else? Anyway my left foot is asleep, and I'm dreading the period of waking-up that follows. TTYL.


OK, there goes the foot....OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Slither

Robert (an uber-fan of my glorious blogs) was asking if I have, or will be, watching the new movie Slither. I try to stay away from just those sorts of films. Which one was it where people were crap-birthing these nasty aliens? Something about dreamcatchers I think. Michael remembers. I think my favorite Browncoat is in it, but still...

I'm still hanging out in Florida for a couple more months. I can't wait to get back to the hubby in TX. Ugh! I can't believe I want to go back to Texass.

I should really be asleep about now, in preperation for a long day walking around the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. I'm kinda excited again, we'll see. I've spent my entire day today reading Absolution Gap, and I've only got...lets see...87 pages to go. It's been ages since it has taken me this long to read a book. I started it in January I think. I guess its just a point of pride for me to finish it before I go to bed tonight. I used to read entire 800 page novels in a day, often starting at 8am and finishing at 4am....which in my reckoning is a day since its less than 24 hours, so piss off :P

I am sitting rather awkwardly with my legs crossed and my laptop on my lap. Where else? Anyway my left foot is asleep, and I'm dreading the period of waking-up that follows.

OK, there goes the foot....OWWWWWWWWWW

After that, I read this:
"I said-" Orca Cruz began.
He crunched his fingers down on the eye, shattering it. Something crome-yellow emerged in smoky wisps. A moment later Cruz felt the nerve agent infiltrate her lungs.
No one had to tell her it would be fatal.

Dude, guy gouged out his own eye and it was full of nerve agent.