Sure I look down on my fellow students.
I feel as though I'm above them.
I feel that I'm better than they are.

I sneer at them.

Today in Film History we watched "The Freshman" with Harold Lloyd. The lights went off and not only did my fellow students laugh in all the right places, but they didn't talk through the film or make fun of it as being boring or lame or corny, or any of the things they say when the lights are on. They enjoyed it like a film audience in the '20s. When Harold is at his lowest, when he realizes his friends are all fakers and he's been used and made fun of, the classroom was dead silent. At the end, they applauded.

Dude, I love my fellow studenti.

L'il Happiest

See this toddler.
This is my niece.
She is now 3 1/2 years old.
She loves the Disneyland.
For this toddler I will practice the art of Happy.

For this toddler I will spend my Thanksgiving at Disneyland.

So I'll get my Disneyland hate questions out of the way and clear space to begin the slow path -- baby steps. baby steps -- to happy:

1. Why are there no flies at Disneyland? (saw a mosquito once.)(once.)
2. Why do they make it so you can't see outside of the park? And why does that make me hyperventilate?
3. Why is it that every time I go I end up parking in Thumper? (She, along with "Bambi," was one of those bikini-clad assassins from the weirdest scene in "Diamonds Are Forever.")
4. Why do I have to shell out $3.00 + tax for a certified, registered, only-at-Disneyland Carnation ice cream bar? It doesn't taste better than the $1.25 Circle K Carnation ice cream bar.
5. Was the Snow White ride really better on schrooms?

I feel free and happier already. Oh God ... what if she makes me go on It's a Small World?

(Duff Beer for me. Duff Beer for you. I'll have a Duff. You have one too.)

baby steps.

Back to School - Back to Reality?

Heard on campus today:

• Dude, my tv's too big for my cooler, dude. (2 uses of dude in the same sentence. Va bene.)
  
• Like, that's when you, like, discover how to, like, you know, use a calculator. Right?
  
• It sucks. Like, I've got to read this WHOLE BOOK.

And 4 instances of "I was just going to say" to begin a sentence. That's a new record. Sure, 2 of those came from the same student, but it still counts.

Over it

Okay, I'm done with the tantrum. I realize that this will come up a lot in my future career in journalism. Sure, I'll want to cover the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie baby/wedding/breakup/new house, but I may be relegated to covering Jessica Simpson's new boyfriend. That's just the way the game is played in the news business. And the university is a good place to start learning how to master apathetic reporting.

(It took 4 glasses of red wine to calm down, sure ...)

busted before I even begin

fucking shit fuck. I can't do my research project on Asperger or autism or anything else I was interested in. I have to do it based on one of the topics/news articles already selected by the professor. Fuck! How bitter am I? As if I care about teens and net porn! dammit janet.

And classes haven't even started yet!

"Jackass Number 2" ... Can't do it justice in words. My jaws ache from laughing so hard.

In fact, the movie ended half an hour ago and I'm still laughing. God ... the valentine ... and the bungee jump ... and the rocket ...

Last Hurrah

This is it. Monday school begins (which means Sunday I work, which means the end of the weekends). I have a first day of school outfit already picked out, I've started my research topic for my Journalism paper (Asperger syndrome), and I think I've got a handle on the Italian, at least enough to get me into the class and answering questions about my l'estate. I figure History of Film will take care of itself, and will be approached with an art-flows-over-you method of study. We'll see how long that lasts.

To celebrate the new academic year, cousin/roommate and I are going to pay full price for "Jackass 2".

Man, I love Party Boy.

Yesterday's customer comment of the day: Do you have inventory in your warehouse? And, yes, as I found out, he really did mean it in a general sense, not on a specific item. Are there retail companies out there that are just fronts? And, if so, what are the benefits of a business like that? I may want to consider that as a career. No inventory = No overhead. Bene.

HOT fecking DOG

Checked my school shhhedule today (since last year I started off my college career with 2 changed rooms and no notice) and that's when I noticed it:

SHE'S GONE! MY ITALIAN CLASS HAS CHANGED OUT THE INSTRUCTOR!

My Italian 201 instructor is now someone named Nobuko Wingard. Not a very Italian name, but that's ideal. Really. I-fecking-deal.

Of course, the devil you know and the devil you don't and yah yah yah, but I was having a really hard time coming to terms with the fact that I'd have 2 more months of trudging uphill in shite. One term of heart break (cuore male) in that fecking language is enough. It's good to know that I have a fresh chance with a new instructor who might have a handle on the English language -- which, oddly enough, is useful when you're bouncing students around the complexities of fare, essere and avere in a foreign language. You might want to have the ability to translate it. Yeah.

I should add another random class and up my credits.

Or is that cocky?

Customer service comment of the day by a customer in Texas:
"I've got to go. The dog and the monkey are starting to get into things."

To Knit or Not To Knit

Fall is coming, so it's back to knitting stuff. Last night I was watching "To Be or Not To Be" and I've decided to make this:

It's some form of hood with a scarf attached, and it seemed to keep her warm in Hollywood-Warsaw, so why not try it out in Eugene? It looks like something that will fit under the bike helmet too. Of course it may look completely freakish under the bike helmet ...

Maybe I'll just wear it on the bus.

This is similar to shopping at the movies, with the less than instant shopping-finding gratification. It's also probably going to look wayyyyyyyyyyy different when it's finished.

September 11th, 2001

- I remember not being able to wake up my roommate and boyfriend to tell them about it because she slept with ear plugs and he was clearly worn out from their marathon sex (in the bathroom, the bastards) the night before.
- That afternoon I was reprimanded at work for placing a Red Cross donation jar on my desk. I was told I needed to get it approved by management first. I never actually took it down, because giving-in would be chicken, but no one put money in until the boss said it was okay.
- That night I came home to a note in our mailbox saying that we were evicted from the house so the landlady could move her son in. He needed a stable home environment to win custody of his kids.
- It was the day my plane tickets arrived for visiting Eugene. Four weeks later I was living here.

These are my September 11th memories. God bless Amurca.

Revelations

After 2 days of searching, I've come to the conclusion that I somehow inadvertently donated my bowling ball to Katrina relief last year.

Our 1 Hour Mission

As part of the Eugene celebration of specialness, the McDonald Theatre acknowledged the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek in their "Best of the Best" Film Festival. They showed "The Man Trap" -- the first televised episode of Star Trek -- and it was free. Why free? Well, "Best of the Best Film Festival" didn't really apply to a film in this case. It meant a rented DVD from Flicks n' Picks. Can't show those to the public and charge for it. That would be bad. Even worse is enlarging it for a big screen. Odd how the sound was so funny. Oh well. On the plus side it had Kirk running in serpentine and the memorable line "Quit thinking with your glands" -- not said to Kirk in this case, but to Bones. Weird. [The second most memorable line of the night was from Steven Brence: "Bones is a post."]

Makes you wonder what would have happened if someone had checked out the disc before the McDonald got hold of it. Would have been a short festival, I guess.

There was also a costume contest with no contestants and a Q&A session led by a production assistant (see: "lackey") who worked on The Next Generation and a director of a web film who not only seemed completely unconnected to his film, but also didn't really care much about Star Trek outside of the fact that it gave him a low-paying job for a few hours. But I digress. As an example of Eugene specialness, the Q&A was typical: "I like to speak in Vulcan."

We left quickly afterwards.

Noon in the Garden of Good and Hateful

This is a Japanese Anemone.

Almost 3 years ago I planted 4 anemone bulbs and this is the only one to survive both a seemingly endless snail family and 2 winters with snow. Finally I have something that looks almost like what it's supposed to be. And there are 4 more buds on the way.

This Zinnia was going to be thrown away a couple of weeks ago.

The Before picture wasn't taken because I didn't think there would be an After picture. It used to have 1 flower and a bunch of dried leaves.

It is my finest hour.

That is all ... except to say Feckin', the Croc Hunter! It's too big to get my head around right now.

But I wanted to be Heihachi

According to the What Samurai Are You quiz, I'm Gorobei. I smile a lot and tend not to take things seriously.

I can live with that. Gorobei is pretty cool.

By the way, I want this.







It's a bargain at 126000 yen.