So… college?

Because I’m a psychic, I predict that this is going to be a short post in which I will try to cram as much info as possible.

It’s week 8 of school. And it feels so weird that I’m in college and not high school. The whole living where you work and where you learn is odd. But not too odd. It’s a little enjoyable. The official names of the courses I’m taking are Linguistics: Data, Theory, Exp, Introduction to Anthropology, Classical Mythology, and Evolution: Dinosaurs to Darwin. I got pretty lucky what with the not having 8:30 classes thing. My earliest class is at 10:20, and sometimes my first class isn’t until 1:20. It’s all I can do to not sleep the morning away every Tuesday.
I got a job too. I don’t think it really counts, but it’s pleasant. I work at the circulation desk of the nice, big, new, lovely library. Sometimes I work the first shift, from 8 to 10, so the only people who are there are the crazies who get up early to go to the library. That means I can just sit at the desk and do my own homework, or read. Reading is fun.
I also want to make note that I have a lot of Asian friends and that has never happened to me before. Ever. Some of them are international students, so that’s cool, and some of them aren’t, like me, so that’s cool too. They are very awesome people and I love how comfortable we are with each other. I’m pretty sure Annie and Tra My have slept together in Tra My’s bed the last two nights, and there also seems to be a lot of butt slapping and bongo playing amongst us.
Also, I think I’m going to get fat. This food looks horrendously bad for me… even the vegetarian options, which, yes, I do eat sometimes. Not to mention the waffle bars, sundae bars, cupcake bars, bar, bars, bars…

Next topic…  101 in 1001.  I have successfully completed 2 more tasks (it sounds like an accomplishment, but in the whole scheme of things, it isn’t).  Way back when I finished my first goal I also finished another one: 42. Purchase and use a real address book.  I got a cute one from Borders, and I’m actually going to drop everything right now and write my uncle’s new address in it.  Ok, that’s done.  I also did 22. Wish upon a shooting star.  About a month ago I went up to the university cemetery (spooky!) and, because Colgate is in the middle of no where we were able to see lots and lots of stars.  It was a very clear, crisp night and it was probably the second best sky I have ever seen (the first being when I was at Girl Scout camp a long time ago and we couldn’t even find the big dipper there were too many stars).  We saw lots of stars and the milky way was just visible… and, lucky me, we saw two shooting stars as well.  I can’t tell you what I wished for because… well, 1) it won’t come true if I tell and 2) I don’t really remember what I wished for.  It was quite nice.  Here’s the 101in1001 video, and just as a warning, the audio is totally lagging.

Last thing.  I recently read a book, Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.  (Note: the last time the book was checked out was 10 years ago.  What a lonely book)  Basically, it’s about Pope Joan, a female pope from the 800s who gets away with her strange life by posing as a man.  It was very good, I recommend it (and if you aren’t going to read it, then just read the afterword which explains the case for Joan’s existence).  Point of the story: Pope Joan, the movie is being released this month… but it’s a German movie.  Sad pandas for me.

No, wait, now it’s the last thing.  I had the flu a couple weeks ago, and not of the swine variety.  It sucked.  And it was my own fault because I was too scared to get a flu shot.  But, because we have to be extra safe and stop the spread of disease on campus, I was quarantined.  So, I spent four days with 2 other flu-ridden girls in an empty apartment.  We had to wear surgical masks when dealing with the common folk, and our food was delivered in sad little take-out boxes, and we were just generally very pathetic.  I’m all better now, except that I have a nasty cough that gets annoying really quickly.  Is there a max number of cough drops you should eat in an hour?  I hope not.

I’m done now and obviously not a psychic, this was a longish post.  Have a nice day.

Of firsts and lasts

Success!  I finished my first goal for the 101 in 1001 project.  Gosh darn it if it didn’t take freaking forever.  Goal no. 59 is officially complete and sitting on my bed right now.

59. Obtain frames for select photos

Honestly, it’s a really lame first goal.  All I did was go out to Target and pick out a few picture frames I liked and then I bought them.  But, it’s done and that’s all that’s going to matter.  That and my pictures will look nice in their frames.  I suppose I could be like a regular person and just tape the darn pictures to my dorm walls or something like that, and I will, but just not all of them.  Four will have a nice home in nice frames.

Speaking of dorms, I’m moving into mine tomorrow.  I still need to finish packing and cleaning and mentally preparing myself.  It’s not a very efficient process.  Not the way I’m doing it at least.  Maybe instead of writing this I could be cleaning.  Maybe instead of reading a book I could be packing.  Maybe instead of being sad and worried I could be excited.  But then again, it’ll get done eventually, it has to anyways.

Okay, okay, I’m going to go pack.  I swear that’s what I’m going to do right after I hit publish.  Yep, that’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to post this and then I’m going to close firefox and then I’m going to maybe shut my laptop and then I’m going to, um, yeah, pack.  Pack.  My stuff.  Into boxes.  That’s right, all my stuff I’m going to bring to college I’m going to put it in boxes and bags and then I’ll be done.  Yeah………

France. Pictures. Ok.

Between the 7th and 14th of August I was in Paris.  I was staying with Marine’s family because Marine stayed with my family last fall.  I saw less things than I wanted to see, but I still had lots of fun.  I’m also feeling really, really, really lazy right now.  I mean, I haven’t even done the single summer assignment I was given for July 31st and I go to school in a week.  Because I am so lazy I’m going to just post pictures with the most simple captions you could ever imagine.  Enjoy.

Champs-Élysées

Arc de Triomphe

Street

Ministique

Tuileries Garden

Not even going to bother, you know what it is.

Louvre

Fin.

Project Zero

New Years resolutions are so yesterday.  I’ve never made a New Years resolution except in elementary school when we had to make one and illustrate it in class.  I really don’t think it’s worth it.  I know I wouldn’t be committed to seeing it through.

So, call me crazy for attempting to do 101 things if you want, but I think this might actually work.  Basically, I’ve made a list of 101 things that I want to do and I have 1001 days to do them all.  1001 days is nearly 3 years, so I have plenty of time.  Another reason I have a chance of seeing this through is the little support group I’ve created around myself.  My sister and cousin and online friends are crazy enough to do it with me.  And on top of just trying to do all 101 things on our lists, we’re documenting our progress and putting it on youtube.  It’s mostly a personal thing so we can see what everyone else is getting done, but you the channel is public so anyone can get a glimpse.

So far Claire, Erin, and I have posted our lists in their entirety.  Dasha and Ellie have the start of their list uploaded and Emily has finished writing her list.  And Erin wins for getting the most goals done so far.

You can see my whole list here.  And you can read more about this project at the Day Zero site.  Also you should check out A Wolf, Tara, Amanda and Lauren’s 101 blogs.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Story first.  Me and my mom got to the theatre at 11:45, which was really dumb, I knew it was really dumb before we even got there.  There was one full row that was empty and that was the very first row.  That was not going to happen, so we sat on the stairs.  One of the theatre people with the glowing orange sticks checked the theatre before the movie started and didn’t tell us to find a seat, so that was dandy.  And then during the quidditch trials another orange stick carrier told us we were a fire hazard and we had to sit down.  Fortunately he was nice and found us some separate end seats further up so I wouldn’t have to get queasy in the front row.  I also missed the quidditch tryouts, rawr.

I’m not sure I can fully process the movie quite yet.  I need to watch it again.  So a list will have to suffice for now.

• Straight up book to movie quotes.  Yay!  This movie seemed to take much more direct quotes from the book than the other movies have.  I can’t really remember what quotes were there.  Oh, lots of the dialogue from Slughorn’s full memory was stripped from the original.
• My mom says that Jim Broadbent wasn’t a fat enough Slughorn, she also commented on his lack of walrus mustache.  I was perfectly happy with Broadbent though and a mustache would have made him look too much like Zidler.



• Draco, Draco, Draco, Draco.  Firstly, Tom Felton looks so old now and I’ve always believed he was a better actor than Dan.  This movie really proves it because here we finally get to see more of Tom as Draco adjacent to Dan’s portrayal of Harry.  Tom Felton can cry much better than Dan too.  The emotions that come out of Tom were perfect.  First he’s so incredibly cocky on the train, then comes the doubt and fear after Katie Bell and his first attempts with the cabinet, and then finally as he’s trying to kill Dumbledore.  It was perfect.  The suits and little briefcase satchel were kind of a hoot though.  Very Malfoy, but kind of out of place for Hogwarts.
• Hey, hey, did you know Snape is a good guy?!  The beauty of the sixth book was that it had the whole fandom split.  Half were absolutely convinced that Snape’s final act was the kiss of death, he was a Death Eater, and the rest of us just knew that Snape was always Dumbledore’s man.  But with the movie, it makes it so painfully obvious that Snape is really good.  1) Snape and Dumbledore’s argument is much more prominent.  2) Dumbledore’s, “Snape, please,” is less pitiful and more commanding.  3) Snape doesn’t get as angry at Harry when Harry calls him a coward.  4) Also, Snape’s hair was less greasy, which obviously signals his goodness and cleanliness and willingness to use shampoo.
• Where’s the Half Blood Prince.  The whole Half Blood Prince angle was sort of lost within everything else that was happening.  But, movies can never live up to the complexities of a Harry Potter book.  But Ron and Harry’s brief little struggle over the good book was priceless.
• Speaking of priceless, drugged up Ron.  Rupert Grint pulled it off so effortlessly, it was perfect!  His facial expressions and throwing the chocolate box at Harry.  Oh man, it was great.
• Lavender Brown, nope.  I didn’t think she was that pretty, my mom thought she was really pretty though.  I did think she did the lovey-dovey Won-Won stuff perfectly though.  All the nuzzling and fog hearts.  Tehe.
• Awkward Ginny.  Bonnie Wright is beautiful and everything and she has this lovely face, but for some reason it doesn’t scream Ginny to me.  Bonnie just doesn’t look like a strong, out-going, independent Weasley.  It sounds kind of terrible, but I don’t really know how else to say it.  Bonnie has this soft look and it’s just not Ginny for me.  Plus that seductive Room of Requirement bit was just bizarre.
• Cormac was kinda gorgeous, but that finger sucking at the first dinner party was just… just… lawlz.
• Emma really stuck out for me for some reason.  I think she did everything really well.  The canary scene!  And it was a little weird with her straight out admitting to Harry that she likes Ron, but it was alright.
• Teenage Tom looked much younger than I imagined, but his voice was spot on.
• Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes!  It was amazing.  I did miss U-No-Poo though.

Okay.  I think that’s alright for now.  I’ll probably think of something later…

What’s the story, Wishbone?

What’s the story, Wishbone? What’s this you’re dreaming up?

Such a big imagination for such a little pup.

What’s the story, Wishbone? Do you think it’s worth a look?

It kinda seems familiar, like a story from a book.

Shake a leg now, Wishbone! Let’s wag another tale.

Sniffin’ out adventure with Wishbone on the trail.

C’mon, Wishbone!

Anyone else watch Wishbone as a child?  I loved that TV show and I still do.  In fact, I actually made my mom take out Wishbone on VHS from the library for me, not too long ago.  I wish they would revive Wishbone.

In case you don’t know what Wishbone is, here’s the gist of it.  Wishbone is an adorable Jack Russel Terrier and his owner is Joe.  Wishbone is a real smart little pup who seems to tie in the things happening in Joe’s life with the things that happened to people in classic works like Great Expectations, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Romeo and Juliet.  So, each episode is made up of Joe’s bits and Wishbone’s story telling bits where Wishbone usually stars as the leading protagonist.  Awesome. Here, watch an episode.

The people at PBS deviously tricked little kids into watching classic stories played out by a cute puppy.  Wishbone was probably what made me the bookish nerd I am today (that and Harry Potter).  Seriously, show me a kid who loved Wishbone and who isn’t a nerd today.  I dare you.

I don’t actually remember much from the shows.  I remember a Halloween scavenger hunt which involved little pumpkins that contained hints.  I remember Joe’s grocery delivering service which was also when he alienated his friends by being too bossy.  I remember Sam trying to save a tree from being knocked down.  I remember Odysseus/Wishbone coming home and challenging the suitors to shoot an arrow through his axes.  And, funnily enough, Wishbone has taught my mom a few things.  When I was reading The Tale of Two Cities a couple years ago my mom asked me if it was the one about two guys who looked alike and if one went to jail for the other.  She’s never read the book though, she only knew this from… Wishbone, of course.  Oh, but, just the sound of Wishbone’s voice sends me into the land of nostalgic tendencies.

Will someone please buy me Wishbone DVDs?

Trailer Time!

I went to see Transformers 2 today.  I really don’t have much to say about that.  It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t the best thing to happen to me in my life either.  Somewhere in the middle.  Oh, but the effects were pretty stunning.  I just like the zwoom-zwoom lightsaber-eque noises the Decpticons make when they move.

Right now, I want to talk about the trailers.  We’ll start from the beginning.

Trailer #1: Aliens in the Attic.  It seems like a pretty doofy movie.  (Yeah, I just made up that word.)  Mostly, I was excited to see Carter Jenkins in the movie.  He’s had a lot of guest spots on some TV shows, but he will always be Miles Barnett from Surface to me.  I loved that show, but it was canceled after the first season.  The gist of it… newly discovered sea species are causing lots of problems when they start messing up with the ocean.  It was awesome, and it’s gone… and now Miles is trapped in a church in North Carolina as the coast floods and gigantic sea creatures swin around him.  You don’t really care, so next trailer.

Trailer #2: 2012.  This looked like a pretty awesome movie.  I pretty much adore Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow,  and since it’s all Roland Emmerich, I think it’s safe to say 2012 will be good.  Just a side note, Liam James, the little boy who plays the young Sean Spencer in Psych is in this.

Trailer #3: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  It’s the grand finale!  What kind of Harry Potter fan would I be if I hadn’t already seen every version whether it be American or Japanese released?  I’d be a lousy one, so of course I’ve seen this trailer several times on my computer and listened to the PotterCast crew dissect it several times.  But, it finally hit me today as I was watching the trailer on the big screen.  There’s a new Harry Potter movie coming out in 12 days!  Brand new!  All new!  New new!  I am so excited for this movie now.  This might be the most excited for a movie I’ve ever gotten, actually.  I might manage to ignore the fact that the Death Eaters poop black smoke when they apparate and that Slughorn doesn’t have a walrus mustache.  I might just enjoy the movie as a movie and not as a sucky film version of an awesome book.  Maybe it’s because HBP is my least favorite Harry Potter book…

Prom in pictures

(Links to photos)

Please allow me to be a silly girl for like 10 minutes.  Prom, or rather the Senior Ball, was last Saturday.  It was on a boat.  Bam.

Personally, I had a swell prom night.  I got to wear my fancy dress, Hollywood glamour as Mike described it, and my sick made-out-of-zipper shoes.  I’m not sure why half the fun is dressing up, but it is.  There’s something about wearing a fabulous outfit that gives you an extra bit of oomph.  Everyone gets to feel extra special.  And seeing all your friends looking beautiful is a bit of the fun too.  And we can swoon at the dapper young men around us, well, man in my case.

The other half of the fun?  Dancing.  I think that technically, “dancing” at prom is more like thrashing gracefully.  But, it’s fun nevertheless because you can express your joy and crazy need to just move by thrashing gracefully (or not gracefully).  Only drawback of dancing on a boat?  It’s hot and crowded, crowded, crowded.  I hope everyone had their water proof make-up on because we were all swimming in sweat, I’m sure.  It was so hot that the windows were fogged up and even my glasses would get fogged up whenever I got anywhere near the dance floor.  It was a frickin sauna, even next to the vents on the edge, not to mention in the thick of it.

Some other things to mention….  Bars supplying us with virgin drinks on all floors, oh boy.  And kinda lame fireworks, but that’s better than no fireworks.

I could also pick apart the less fun aspects of prom, but I think not.  Let’s end on a high note.

A Letter

Dear Alyson,

You are a miserable failure. Do you remember in the beginning of April when you lied to everyone? Don’t even pretend to not know what I’m saying. You wrote in this very blog, I, Alyson, promise to blog every day in April.  Now do you remember?  Oh, yeah, you better remember.  And you thought you had all of us fooled, didn’t you?  11 days.  You wrote a blog for 11 days, heck, that’s almost half the month.  And then, you thought you could get away with just 11 days, not 12, not 13, certainly not all 30 days of April, but just 11 days of blogs.  What’s your problem?  Do you think we’re all stupid?  We know how to count.

And what’s worse than not even following BEDA through?  What’s worse is that you had all the material in the world to write about.  You know what I’m talking about.  You were in freaking London for a week in April.  You did so much stuff in London that you could have written about.  You could’ve talked about the London Tower and all the cool amour and things of Henry VIII you saw, or the block that Lord Lovat was executed on, or the delicious Indian restaurant you went to, or about the dress made out of bras you saw, or any of the other million things you did.  But noooooooooo.  You just write a dinky little piece the first day you get there and deprive the world on the rest of your adventures.  No, you know what?  No one wants to know what you did in London.  You fail.

And, and, on top of that, oh yeah, there is more… do you know what day it is?  It’s frickin’ May 24th.  May is almost bloody over, and you’ve been putting off yelling at yourself for not finishing BEDA.  BEDA ended on April 30, that’s 24 days ago.  You’ve been putting this off for 24 days.  Have you no shame?  To add insult to injury, you can’t even man up to your broken promises.  Not anymore, this ends today.  It is over.  You are over.  BEDA is over.  Game over.  Get over yourself.

Sincerely,
Your better half.

Jet Laaaaaaaaaag.

Vacation Begins: London here we come. The Schedule*

April 9, Thursday:
4:00p- Drive to Grandparents’ house in Connecticut
7:00p- Arrive at Grandparents’ house and eat dinner (chive dumplings, yum!)
10:00p- Go to sleep

April 10, Friday:
7:30a- Wake up to the noise of Mom packing and generally moving about
8:00a- Shower in anticipation of long flight
10:00a- Leave for Bradley Airport
12:00p- Eat lunch
1:30p- Say goodbye to Dad, Emily, and Jeremy who are flying with Continental
2:30p- Board plane (United) with Mom and Madelyn
4:00p- Arrive at DC
5:00p- Board plane and prepare for 7 hour flight to London (Note: Airplanes are awesome. Airplane food is not awesome. It actually sucks a lot. Especially the pasta because it is hard and is sprinkled with overcooked peas.) (Note II: Watched Quantum of Solace and was very confused. Also Daniel Craig is 41, but spies are hot, so, um…. Watched Seven Pounds and was slightly less confused. Will Smith has big muscles, but already knew that.) (Note III: Only slept for 1 hour because the stupid overhead light kept turning on like magic which is distracting)

April 11, Saturday: (Note: GMT time now)
5:30a- Arrive at London-Heathrow airport (Note: OMG!)
6:00a- Uncle Henry (aka Su-su) arrives arrives at airport to meet us
7:00a- Dad, Emily, and Jeremy finally arrive
7:30a- Take the Underground and walk to Su-su and Uncle James’ top floor flat (Note: Love the signs for the ‘way out’ rather than the ‘exit.’ Sounds much more psychological.) (Note II: Uncles’ flat is amazing. So pretty and nice and eclectic with stuff from their travels. Lots of furniture from China, rugs, paintings, a cool rolling clock.)
8:00a- Nap
12:00p- Wake up
12:30p- Take double decker bus to Trafalgar Square and visit The National Gallery (Note: So cool to see the paintings from 10th grade Arts and Ideas text book, such as Marriage a la Mode. Favorite painting, possible Surprise! by Rousseau
1:30p- Coffee break at Cafe Nero (Note: Gwyneth Paltrow lives in my uncle’s neighborhood/area?)
2:00p- To Leicester Square
3:00- To King’s Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4 wall (Note: Yes, pictures with the trolley half in the wall.)
4:00- Dinner at the Pizza Express (Note: Delicious thin crust pizza. One with lots of veggies like artichoke, olives, mushrooms, red peppers. The other with little mini scrumptious pepperonis.)

*Some times are completely innacturate because I don’t have a watch.
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I am so completely tired. Also, I’m disgusting because I don’t think I’ve showered in the last 24 hours. But, I am so completely happy because I’m in London! Wonder what’s going on tomorrow.