That's a quote from Virgil for your title--let's hear it for the classics! ...And now I sound like a TV announcer.

Note: I think I'm tired. I typed "here" instead of "hear" above, and I didn't notice it until I was previewing the post. Shockifications. /Note

So I've got 2/3 of my finals behind me, and I think I've done well enough to get the grade that I want in the classes. Biology and Math are behind me, for better or for worse, and so now I'm just focusing on the Austen final which takes place tomorrow. I studied collectively over dead week as much as I could and now I'm just studying as they come. I studied exclusively for math (as much time as there was, with an 8 am Monday exam) and then I moved on to biology exclusively and so finally I'm finishing my plans for the in-class essay on Emma. I am very happy to be rid of math and biology. They were great, the teachers were wonderful, it wasn't terribly stressful while I was doing it, but now that the weight's gone it's a lot more freeing than I thought it would be.

I did my trial run for the job, and it was really, really good. I thought I was supposed to be "proving" that I could do the job, but I guess the interview several weeks back was enough--she already considers me "employed" by her, which is really great. I'm just very excited about how well that opportunity is turning out. We wound up staying up really late because she had an unexpected friend visiting (who is a genius who seems to do everything, and they went to Russia together back in '75 and met Elizabeth Taylor...it's a pretty cool story; ask me about it sometime and I'll tell you) and didn't get my work done until almost midnight. She was really sweet and apologetic and kept saying "promise me you won't quit!" (I have absolutely no intention of even thinking about that...) It's just amazing how that's working out and I'm so thankful.

I also manipulated my fall schedule slightly so that I have back-to-back classes on MWF from 9:30am to 2:30pm (I think I originally had a two hour break in the middle somewhere) which means that hanging out time after Calculus on those days won't be much, MadSci. But on Tuesday I'll have plenty of time; Calc's my only Tuesday class. All I've got on Thursday is a Chem lab. I like having heavy class days and then free(ish) days for homework and other stuff. So far this is working out that way.

Brother C and Sister C had their glasses "upgraded" the other day. This is especially good news for Brother C. Poor kid...every time his upper body turned slightly face-down towards the ground, the rotten old pair (which was too small, too dirty, and quite bent out of shape) would drop right off his nose. I don't even know if they reached his ears. They actually went to get the glasses ordered a long time ago because he needed them and they took forever to come in, which was weird--they're normally so prompt. But anyway, he finally got his new pair of specs, and while on the surface they're not that drastic a change, those of us who have had to watch those things drop off again and again can sure tell the difference. However, I cannot say that the improvement in the quality of the glasses is helping him to remember to wear them any more. The cry of "Hey! You! Where are your glasses?!" followed by his responding sheepish shrug is still typical. We'll see if that doesn't change...

A slightly more drastic change in the scenery here is the appearance of the same ocular device on the face of Brother G. He is now a member of the nerd class of our family, which is rapidly outgrowing the non-nerd class (!!). The glasses do make Brother G look rather dapper and intellectual--that is, when he keeps the roguish grin off his face. Hmm. I really should start a family picture blog; I hate putting stuff up on here because it's rather too personal, but if it was a safe, secret link which could only be divulged among close acquaintances...we'll see.

In other news, I'm officially Self-Volunteered Director of the drama department for this year's VBS, which should be interesting. I've already got five or six of the Jr High girls hanging off of me begging to be a part of it... so it's upping my popularity over here! That's always a perk. ^_^

...I can't wait for tomorrow!!!

-Inky

It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air - there's the rub, the task.

Well, since I am still in the throes of pre-finals, and since someone complained about the gruesome nature of the last post's Doctor quote, I thought I'd throw out some non-gruesome (but very funny) quotes from the show when Tom Baker was the Doc. These are from The Revenge of the Cybermen. Most of them are Harry and Sarah, who I think a pretty hilarious combination of companions. I wish they'd do something similar with the current season.

Sarah and Harry are transported to a strange planet without the Doctor. Harry stops to speculate what he could do with a large chunk of gold he has found, and as they linger they are captured by the rather cheesily strange inhabitants:

Sarah: The Doctor will be worrying about us.
Harry: I'M worrying about us!

The planet whose inhabitants have captured them is made of gold. They are chained up and left to sit, awaiting their death sentence:

Harry: Sarah, these chains are solid gold!
Sarah: Harry, will you just shut up about your rotten gold?!
Harry: Maybe four karat by the looks of it...
Sarah: It's because of the gold we're in this mess!
Harry: I was just thinking...
Sarah: Well, don't!

They use a rock to bend the gold and try to get out of the chains...

Harry: The gold! It's flattening!
Sarah: So's my ankle!

Of course they eventually get the chains off, but are stopped by weird creatures with guns:

Harry: This looks like the end, Sarah.
Sarah: That's one thing about you, Harry: you never miss the obvious.

And finally, the Doctor shares his policy on ideas:

Doctor: I think my idea's better.
Crewman: What's your idea?
Doctor: I don't know yet. That's the problem with ideas. They only come a bit at a time.

I've been thinking a lot about time lately. I had Freshman Orientation on Monday, and so I was thinking about the next semester, and how I'd like to spend my time then. The future is usually what comes to mind when one thinks about time, but then one can't make decisions about the future unless one knows what one thinks of the present, and so one winds up thinking a lot about how one is spending one's time at the moment too...

So, anyway, Freshman Orientation: sitting around in a large room full of high school students, being told how great we are, trying not to be bored with having information thrown at me that I've already either heard before or figured out on my own, contemplating starting the Rock Kickers United Society with Sam, spending an hour and a half talking about what classes to enroll in only to find out that the ones I'm already enrolled in are just fine and I didn't have to really be there (and therefore miss biology on top of Jane Austen... and I wasn't expecting to miss both; they told me I wasn't going to have to miss biology, but then I found out I was, but I figured it would be worth it if it would get my enrollment straightened out, and then when the guy was supposed to sign the paper he barely even looked at my class list... reminds me of the adviser I saw last Christmas who just sort of waved me by and didn't even leave any records...) anyway, enough of the inattentions of advisers.

The long and short of it is, I'm signed up for all the classes I swore throughout high school that I'd never take in college because they're too hard, I hate the subject material, etc.--well, lo and behold, I'm actually looking forward to these. My classes for this fall are (in order of their occurence):

Calculus I
Elementary Statistics
Greek I
Chemistry I
Overview of American History

17 whopping hours. Whoop. (If I CLEP out of American History, it could go down to 14...probably not, though. I'd probably just add the Democracy In America class in its place.) They all happen on MWF, so those days are going to be pretty nasty. I only have a Calculus class on Tuesday and Chemistry lab on Thursday, so actually I'm going to have a pretty decent schedule, I think. I like having class-days and homework days, rather than class-and-homework-thrown-together-and-mushed-around days. Those are painful.

Gotta go... paper to write, pre-lab to finish. It's the last paper and the last pre-lab; I just turned in the last math assignment. I'm slightly stressed about finals--they're just so close!--but I'm also looking forward to being done.

"Tracked you down with this. This is my timey-wimey detector. Goes ding when there's stuff. Also, it can boil an egg at 30 paces. Whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow."

Guess who! ...literally, guess "Who"--that is, if you guessed Who with regards to the title, you would have been correct.

Not much in the way of "new" things going on here. I've been falling behind in a thousand things, trying to catch up in others, practicing my mad Freshman Comp skills, memorizing, evangelizing, singing, biologyizing, not writing a paper, trying to fill out forms, eating awesome Thai food, sitting by Theta Pond...

13/14 of my biology lab assignments are done. Over. Gone. Caput. If I were the sort to use phraseology like 'w00t,' I'd throw that in right about now. I am quite happy at the thought that next Thursday I shall have biology lab ne'er more. It was fun, but I'll be glad when it's gone. Also, 13/14 of my math assignments have gone in, and I'll turn in 3/4 writing assignments for Jane Austen next Friday. The end is near, my friends. =)

Truthfully, I don't know what I shall do with myself when school is over. My schedule will be so empty...devoid of any requirements or demands. Time shall not be an issue.

And if you believe that, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you--and I'll even throw in the Brooklyn Bridge for free.

(Paraphrasing a country song there...)

No, seriously, I shall look forward to being able to get all the little nuisances out of my way--wrapping up driving, high school, finding a day job, writing out plots that have been nagging me all semester, more tests--which I couldn't really focus on with school.

[abruptness]

I'm tired. I need to review some stuff before tomorrow. I'm going to get off now.

[/abruptness]

I realized I hadn't responded to several comments of Shadow's; I'm not really sure how to answer questions. I mean, do I comment on my own post? ...how do I know they'll see my answers, then? Do I write a response post? That seems rather pointless and boring... or do I go and leave a comment on your blog which has nothing to do with you and everything to do with moi? ...eh. I still do not know. I'll just tack a response-note on here.

1. My second job this summer will be staying nights with an elderly woman & assisting her as needed. It's a very simple, fun job and I'm really looking forward to it. It also allows me to go look for a part-time day job without burdening me, since I'm sleeping most of the time I'm "on the job" here.

2. I actually really like math exams too. They're so much simpler than homework assignments, because they're smaller in size and more focused. You can just waste all your effort away on these problems and you know exactly which ones will be graded (all of them) and exactly where your strengths and weaknesses are (you typically spend homework assignments figuring this out). Plus, there's just something fun about covering that page with lines and lines of numbers and computations and then having the little box at the bottom with the answer. And I deeply appreciate the way my math teacher believes multiple choice math questions are fundamentally evil. They are. (Algebra is better than trigonometry; I prefer solving for X to messing around with triangles...although solving for angles and sides is pretty cool too. I guess I'd just rather be solving for something...there's such great satisfaction in overcoming the challenge, as you indicated.)

Ehh. Response "note" was practically longer than post. Apologies and condolences to your deceased-from-boredom brains.

-Inkius

MS4, you are correct: the last post's title was by the venerable Ms. Austen.

I shall now give you lots of Robin Hood awesomeness: (some from second season, but shouldn't spoil anything really...) ...mostly because I can't think of anything better at the moment. A much more (or perhaps less) interesting post about real life is on its way shortly...or semi-shortly...or whatever.

~*~

A brilliantly sarcastic Sheriff:

"Yes, it's me. Do you really think I'd smile and let you take Sussex? A clue: no."

Sheriff: Marian sent a message.
Guy: What message?
Sheriff: Oh, um... "I'm not coming back, get over it, and for goodness' sake change your clothes once in a while."

"I'm not paying you now--now that the stiff has stepped off the stretcher."

~*~

From an episode where certain members of the gang are having superstitious fears (which of course turn out to be ridiculous), and some of them are slightly shaken while others remain skeptical...:

Allan: And another thing! My cousin definitely saw a man turn into a frog. He did! Just outside of Dorchester.
Will: I thought you said he was always drunk, your cousin.
Allan: Well, he is. But still...

~*~

And finally, general silliness.

Much: What do girls eat?
Djaq: Special girls' food.

Djaq: I have to be honest. And if I am being honest, I have to say that I do not love all of you in the same way.
Much: It's me isn't it? You love everyone but you don't love me. Brilliant.

Robin: The torches are on, but there is nobody home.
Allan: ...Kind of like Much!
Much: Very funny.

~*~

I have a math exam and a pre-lab to turn in tomorrow; this is all the post for tonight.

Love y'all,
Inky

--> "Never forget the outlaws!" <--

Guess who the quote-of-the-post comes from today? (Be it noted here that if you google it to find out, like dirty cheating scum, you will be on the receiving end of fifty lashes from a wet noodle. Internally. By your own consciences. Heed my warning.)

So I heard that I got the job today, and I'll probably be going in for a practice run a week from this weekend... I may have to cancel a dance thing (grumble...but I probably should anyway; it's dead week...I reeeeally don't want to, though...) anyway, that's definitely a praise. Now I just have to whip up an application and find meself a day job. I know it sounds like a whole lot of work this summer, but most of it takes place at night, and I think I'm going to have a ton of free time, which is great because I've had barely any this semester. I am at least hoping to do stuff with the Enid VBS and goof off at my house. And CLEP. Oh yes, we shall be doing CLEP. Speaking of CLEP, I've got the Freshman Comp test this Friday. >_< 90 problems in 90 minutes. Eeeyuuurrrsshhh. I shall be reading Strunk & White and doing other intolerably dull exercises until then. But it shall all be worth it--a semester or two of Freshman Comp-free class schedules. =)

Onwards...

I'm very glad to be done with the last Saturday. ACT in the morning and emceeing at/performing in a dance gig at Couch Park in the afternoon...it was fun, but I don't want to do it again. I think I did better this time 'round on the test, too; I was definitely less stressed with Science Reasoning. It all made sense and I wasn't so scrambled for time, although I think they should at least give us another five minutes on that section... and maybe thirty more seconds on the math section would have helped. I had to leave a problem blank because I figured it out right before she called time and didn't get the chance to fill in the bubble. I am very mad.

Anyway, I need to go make dinner and then study biology and catch up on some work. Thankfully my math's all done...it's due tomorrow, and the one question I didn't have done this morning she went over in class today...took the entire class period, so I'm glad I didn't have to work it on my own. =)

I'll be writing some of you emails soon...should probably call others of you... and if that wasn't a vague statement I don't know what is.

-Inky

L.A.'s changed a lot over the years
Since those brave gold rush pioneers
Came in their creaky covered wagons
Far as they could go, end of the line
Their dreams were yours, their dreams were mine
But in those dreams were hidden dragons.

Sunset Boulevard, frenzied boulevard
Swamped with every kind of false emotion.
Sunset Boulevard, brutal boulevard
Just like you, we'll wind up in the ocean.

She was sinking fast, I threw a rope
Now I have suits and she has hope.
It seemed an elegant solution.
One day this must end, it isn't real
Still I'll enjoy a hearty meal
Before tomorrow's execution.

Sunset Boulevard, ruthless boulevard
Destination for the stony-hearted
Sunset Boulevard, lethal boulevard
Everyone's forgotten how they started
Here on Sunset Boulevard...!

--excerpt of title song from the musical "Sunset Boulevard." There's something about the word imagery and the depressing clarity with which truth is presented that makes me love this part of the song (also because it's the part that doesn't contain anything terribly vulgar...)

My last post received some rather mixed results and I wasn't sure whether people got it or not, so I wanted to make sure everybody gets it and nobody is laboring under delusions of...well, delusional things. So, if you took me seriously, please look at the date of the last post and rest assured that I am most certainly not going to go into engineering of any size, form, or variety--nor would I decide to do so at the draw of a hat--I mean, drop of a hat. And if everyone did get it, please reassure me of the fact that I am very, very dense and let it rest at that.

Speaking of denseness, here's my blonde moment of the day: adding 2 grams of agarite to our gel mixture instead of .2 grams. So the denseness refers to two things: my head and the contents therein, and the resulting lead-like gel. I have never done that before and it was very mortifying indeed. But I blame it on the book. If it had said "0.2," as is proper, I would never have misread it. It just had to say ".2," and that was misleading. Anyone can overlook a period.

(Yeah, yeah, you just keep telling yourself that...if it makes you feel better...)

Le title probably seems rather strange. It's a quote from a parody I found a while back of Torchwood, a BBC show that's meant to accompany Doctor Who but is really rather worthless (or so I've heard). After the first five to eight seconds, when the Jack-Harkness-look-alike had done his little swagger walk and convinced the constable to let him into the crime scene by virtue of their being Torchwood ("the most famous secret agency!") and his own shiny teeth, it all became rather dubious in its humor and we stopped watching it. But seeing what I have of Capt. Jack from Doctor Who, and being none too impressed with the depth or quality of his character, I found that part rather funny.

And so, rather than impressing you all with the depth of my current state of being stressed out, I will honor you with some Doctor Who quotes--some of Jack's better moments. =)

A funny situation from Empty Child/Doctor Dances: Doctor Who is forced to admit to Capt. Jack (not the pirate) that his "sonic device" is a sonic screwdriver, which sounds much less macho than Jack's sonic blaster.

Jack: Who has a sonic screwdriver?!
The Doctor: I do!
Jack: ...Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'Ooo, this could be a little more sonic!'?
The Doctor: What, you've never been bored? Never had a long night?... Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?

...from the same episode, after a banana has appeared through a long and laborious sequence of events and conversations the explanation of which will only serve to bore you...

The Doctor: Go! Go now! Don't drop the banana!
Jack: Why not?!
The Doctor: Good source of potassium.

...later, as they're locked in a room with no escape from evil dudes outside the door...

The Doctor: Assets!
Jack: Our assets? Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves...

...so maybe they don't make sense. But I assure you, in their proper context, they're quite funny. Perhaps I should find something besides the good ol' Doc to quote. Any ideas?

Cheerio!
-Inky

I’ve had some time to think about this whole career/major thing recently, especially over spring break. It’s really quite a complicated business—one that often has me clutching my head and gasping for breath like a fish. But honestly—it’s not an easy business. Talking to people helps sometimes, but it mostly just confuses me more. So I think I’ve finally figured it out.

Here’s what I did:

I made a slip of paper for each career choice anyone has ever suggested to me. If more than one person has suggested or recommended a particular career, I put in that number of slips with that career. I figure that the first one I pull out of the hat will be a divine ordinance and therefore right. So I’ve got all my options in Ben’s old baseball cap—which he must have left home when he went to the C’s this morning— and I stuck in my hand and pulled out …

Engineering.

Okay, so I wasn’t willing to go through on my plan at first. Obviously this was some mistake or irony of providence—a sign, maybe, that this is not a good way to choose a major. But then I started thinking about it, and engineering really makes sense. I’ve always wanted a stable job, and a woman engineer has a really good chance for being hired quickly with good pay. I’ve found out recently I’ve got a good head for problems and math and such and I’m not averse to this kind of stuff. There are other reasons. I talked to my parents, and they agreed that it was a drastic change but probably for the best. I’ve looked at the options, and I’m thinking combustion engineering, but I haven’t really made up my mind about all that. This all just makes so much more sense than any of my previous plans! I’m super excited about it. What do y’all think?

But here's the coolest news: I saw a new, exclusive 4th Season Doctor Who preview/interview, and they said that they're giving the Daleks a new, better war cry:

"White Rabbit! WHITE RABBIT!"

-Inky